This ongoing series of messages looks at different books of the Bible to highlight how they point us to Jesus and His work of redemption. They were originally preached at Grace Community Baptist Church in Palatka, Florida beginning in 2020. As new messages become available the audio and manuscript versions will be posted.
2/23/2020
This morning, before we partake of communion together, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Genesis points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. As we see do so, it will refresh us on the big picture of God’s history-long plan of redemption that began at the beginning and is still going on today. It will help us see our place in God’s eternal purposes. Hopefully it will also encourage us as His children to persist faithfully in trusting and obeying Him in the part of His plan which He has for us in this world.
By Genesis 3:15 Adam and Eve have already sinned after the temptation by Satan in the form of a snake. God then pronounced a curse on the serpent, and made this proclamation:
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
There would be a Seed of the woman which would bruise the serpent’s head. The serpent would, however, strike a blow on the Seed’s heel. This is a prophesy of the coming and work of Jesus. Jesus would be the born of a virgin. A woman does not have the “seed.” So this birth would be unique. He would defeat Satan, breaking the power of sin over the world. Nonetheless, the accomplishment of this would not be without his own suffering. As we know, Jesus did indeed suffer and die. Yet, He rose again, overcoming sin and judgment as He Himself fully paid for it.
So what does Genesis 3:15 tell us? It prophesies at the very beginning of the virgin birth of Jesus, the defeat of Satan, as well as the suffering of Jesus.
Genesis 12:1-3 gives us a second aspect of God’s plan revealed in Genesis.
Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Salvation, forgiveness of sin, and reconciliation to God, has always been by faith in the work of God on our behalf. God made promises to Abraham and he believed Him. His obedience to leave his homeland and follow God showed the presence and reality of his faith. Notice what Genesis 15:4-6 says about faith and its relationship to righteousness.
Genesis 15:4-6 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
That faith in God was accounted to Abraham as righteousness. Abraham’s obedience did not earn the salvation. Rather it was faith in the promise and work of God which became the instrument through which God credited the righteousness of the coming work of Christ to Abraham’s account.
Abraham trusted God’s Word. God did the work. God did the promising. God has been carrying it out. God promised to bless Abraham greatly, as well as to bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. Beyond that God promised to make him the channel through which all families of the earth would be blessed. It would be through his line of descendents. Jesus is the fulfillment of that in the salvation that He brought to people from every tribe, nation, tongue, and land. (cf. also Genesis 26:4, to Isaac, Genesis 28:14, to Jacob)
So what does Genesis 12 and 15 tell us? It shows us that God’s way of salvation from sin and death would be through the family of Abraham and would be by faith in the work of God to bring it about.
Genesis 22:1-18 gives us a third aspect of God’s plan revealed in Genesis.
Genesis 22:1-18 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
In Hebrews 11 this same event is talked about.
Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
The “resurrection” or “redemption” of Isaac’s life by the substituting sacrifice of the ram caught in the thicket is a picture. It pictures the power of God to provide a substitute on our behalf. It pictures Christ’s resurrection of us through our redemption by His substitution of His own life for ours on the cross. A sacrifice was needed, and God provided. Abraham received back Isaac’s life as a picture, as a type. It was a foreshadowing of our own resurrection through God’s provision. God’s power would provide. Even though these physical bodies will die God has the power of resurrection to give us His life.
So what does Genesis 22 tell us? It shows us that we need to trust God beyond this life to bring about His salvation. It shows us that we need to trust in God to bring about a substitute who will take the place of our sin and judgment and set us free from sin and death.
Genesis 49:10 gives us a fourth aspect of God’s plan revealed in Genesis.
Genesis 49:10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
The right to rule remained in Judah within the Davidic line until the coming of Jesus. He will reign eternally over Israel, and all people in the re-created heaven and earth. To Him will be the obedience of all peoples.
Not only would God provide our redemption from our own sin personally, but God would also right all wrongs and bring justice. He would deal with sin and rule over everyone.
So what does Genesis 49:10 tell us? It shows us that God’s plan through history would continue through the line of Judah, and would include the whole world being brought into obedience under the promised one’s rule.
Genesis 3:17-24 helps us wrap this all together. This is within God’s judgment that was meted out after mankind’s sin. Here God is addressing Adam.
Genesis 3:17-24 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”- 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
The result of Adam’s sin was a broken, cursed, sin-inflicted world. His sin caused death. A physical animal died to bring Him covering. Spiritually he was separated from God, the source of life. He lost eternal life. He would eventually physically die and return to the dust from which he had been made. We read of that in Genesis 5.
Genesis 5:1-5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
After 930 years, and many sons and daughters who were born in his likeness (which was as an image of God) he died. And that is how the rest of the chapter goes. It lists the man, his main son, how long he lived, and then its states “and he died.” That occurs for every one of them in this genealogy—except Enoch (Chanoch in Hebrew). He simply disappeared, because God took him (after having gained the reputation of one who walked with God). This tells us that the universal consequence of sin was death. This sin problem and its consequences passed along to every generation. It also tells us that only the direct intervention of God could change that—as it did in Enoch’s case.
Romans 5:12-21 takes this and points out how Adam was a type of Jesus who was to come and bring salvation from sin and death.
Romans 5:12-21 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adam typified how the act of one man affected all men. He brought death by his sin. Christ brought life by His death and resurrection. Because of many sins Christ came to bring the free gift of justification. This justification is the imputation and declaration of His righteousness to sinners through the taking on of their sin upon Himself. Not only did they receive this redemption and reconciliation to God through Christ’s work, but they also would reign in life through Jesus Christ eternally. The eternal life lost by Adam through sin is given back to us through Christ—for all those who place their faith in Jesus.
This is what we remember when we partake of communion. This is what the book of Genesis points forward to in so many ways. It relates the entrance of sin and death into this world through Adam and Eve, but it also declares a coming redemption which God alone could and would provide as our substitute under God’s judgment for sin. It is God’s work of redemption alone in which we must place our faith. Then this redemption and work of God would bring our resurrection back to life from the dead.
In this redemption God would involve both man and women. Woman would bear the seed and give birth to the Messiah. The Messiah Himself would be a man, prefigured in type by Adam. He would be descended from the line of Abraham, and come through the tribe of Judah. He would not only bring redemption, overcoming, Satan, sin, and death, but He will also one day reign as ruler over all peoples. All those from all nations following in Abraham’s steps of faith in believing in God’s promise would receive these blessings of new life themselves.
Have you received this redemption and new life? Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Partaking of communion together here will not save you. Rather, it pictures and reminds us of what Jesus did in His salvation of us. If we do not have trust in Jesus Himself, then this will do us no good. It cannot remind us of what Jesus has done for us, it can only remind us of the judgment that our sin deserves—death, separation from God—which we will eternally experience once we physically die if we persist in our rejection of Jesus’ one and only way of salvation. If you have not trusted Him yet, trust Him now.
Admit your sinfulness to Him. Ask Him to save you and forgive you because of what Jesus did in His death, burial, and resurrection in your place. Ask Him to give you His righteousness and take away your sin. Entrust yourself to Him. He can save you from the judgment for your sin and give you His life today. He can free you from sin and help you overcome it one day at a time until He brings you to be with Himself and finishes making you holy.
If you have received it, then may our study of God’s Word this morning refresh the big picture of God’s work of redemption for you. May it encourage you to remain faithful in trusting and obeying God throughout your life’s journey in this broken world. God is not done with this world. He began His work of redemption immediately after Adam and Eve’s sin, and we are in the midst of it now.
Christ has not yet come and instituted His rule over all things and all people here on earth. But just as surely as God took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ when He was born of a virgin, lived perfectly, died innocently, and rose victoriously to pay for our sins and reconcile us to God so too one day He will return and fulfill all the rest of Scripture. Sin will be judged. All those who cursed Abraham and the way of faith in God’s redemption will themselves be cursed by God. Then God’s people will reign with Him eternally with His life inside of them in new, resurrected, perfect bodies in a recreated perfect world.
This is what we remember. This is what we praise God for. This is what we hope for. Given these truths, we can see sin for its true destructive deadliness. We can see what it cost to free us from our slavery to it. We can see God’s amazing love in bearing our death upon Himself and giving us life. So if you have any sin in your life, do not mock God by allowing it to remain. Confess it. Turn from it. Trust in His forgiveness. Trust in His power and ability to overcome it both now and forevermore. Walk in His love and with His help glorify Him.
We are going to have a moment of silent prayer where we can deal with any issues in our hearts, and where we can thank God for His amazing love. Then we will pray and partake of the elements together as we corporately remember and give God thanks.1
© 2020, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
7/26/2020
This morning, before we partake of communion together, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Exodus points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. As we see do so, it will refresh us on the big picture of God’s history-long plan of redemption that began at the beginning and is still going on today. It will help us see our place in God’s eternal purposes. Hopefully it will also encourage us as His children to persist faithfully in trusting and obeying Him in the part of His plan which He has for us in this world.
In the book of Exodus, we have the establishment of the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a nation in God’s rescue of them from their slavery in Egypt. We learn about their population growth in Egypt, their oppression and slavery, the preparation of Moses to lead them out of Egypt, the plagues culminating in the Passover of the angel of death, the departure from Egypt, the rescue by God at the Red Sea, the giving of the law, the wilderness wanderings, the institution of the priesthood, the golden calf failure, and the building of the tabernacle for the worship of God.
The New Testament references the book of Exodus quite a number of times. Many extensive messages could be preached on ways that this book foreshadows aspects of Jesus’ work of redemption. With our time this morning our goal will be to highlight briefly a number of these connections through an overview that gives us the big picture and stimulates us to greater love and appreciation for God’s work through history in carrying out His redemption.
Since so many connections could be made to Christ and His redemption throughout Exodus we will focus on six which are specifically mentioned in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (cf. also John 19:36 and Exodus 12:46)
In the original Passover plague the lamb was slain in the place of the life of the firstborn and the blood was applied to the doorposts. The angel of death passing over Egypt in judgment then spared all those who had by an act of faith sacrificed the Passover lamb and followed God’s instructions. Jesus is our Passover lamb who takes our punishment in our place and redeems us from our slavery and bondage to sin. Passover is a powerful foreshadowing picture of Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice for our eternal redemption.
In this passage in 1 Corinthians Paul was correcting blatant sin that was continuing on in that church. He was pointing out that since Christ is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed on our behalf to redeem us from our sin there needs to be a new reality of purity and holiness in our lives. Just like care was taken in the annual Passover celebration to remove all the old leaven, so too it is only fitting that sin be removed from our lives and our worship services as we celebrate God’s work of salvation through Jesus.
That is a good reminder for us to have as we come to the communion table today. While we do not have any blatant ongoing sin in this church, it is still important for each and every one of us to examine our lives and repent of any sin that we might have in them. Sin is incompatible with fellowship with God and our having been redeemed from sin.
1 Corinthians 10:1-22 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? 19 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
There is a lot there. But in essence, the Israelites were rescued from Egypt. They were redeemed from slavery. They partook of God’s provision—here connected with Christ, like a type or foreshadowing— and yet many of them then engaged in idolatry, immorality, and complaining. If we have truly believed in Jesus we have been saved from our sin and eternal destruction. We have partaken of God’s provision in Christ. We must not give in to temptation and go back to the idols, immorality, and evils of the past. Else we risk the jealousy and judgment of God like was poured out on the disobedient Israelites during their wilderness travels.
John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
The manna sustained the Israelites as God prepared them and brought them to the promised land. True and eternal life is given to us by the Father in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone can bring us back to life from the dead. He alone can reconcile us to the Father through His taking our sin and punishment upon Himself and giving us His righteousness. He alone can sustain us and give us life in this wilderness journey here in this sinful broken world.
Have you personally believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, To free you from your sin and give you true and eternal life? And are you living in the new life that He gives and provides for us? Are you living in joyful communion with the Father, gaining victory over the temptations to sin, and living to the Father’s glory? This is what He provides in Jesus, but we must go to Him for it. We must know Him more deeply through His Word. We must depend on Him daily through prayer.
1 Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
The rock which provided the water is compared to Christ, who provides us spiritual water and true life. He sustains and gives life. God sustained their lives in the wilderness. God sustains our lives through Jesus in this wilderness, in this pilgrimage. As we journey towards the fulfillment of God’s promises Jesus is our sustenance. But, we must not complain about the trials, or give in to the sinful temptations around us (like they did). Rather, we must go in trust to our Savior and seek His help. Seek His life-giving and life-sustaining help. He will provide it.
So let’s not complain about 2020. Let’s not complain about the hardships we are going through in our country—as if God’s provisions were not enough. Let’s go to God for His life-giving help to persevere faithfully and live victoriously through it all for His glory. I am not talking about pretending realities and problems do not exist. No, we have a lot of problems in our society and world right now. But I am talking about making sure we are not responding to our problems as if God’s provisions for life were not good enough to bring us through them in a way that glorified and honored Him.
Hebrews 12:18-29 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. 26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” 27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
When God came down and delivered the law to Israel through Moses it was a sobering and serious occasion. God did not take His holiness or mankind’s sinfulness lightly. There were deadly consequences if people or even animals trespassed into the presence of God. It was a fearful, fiery, awe-inspiring time when God’s voice shook the earth as He delivered to them His righteous law and covenant.
Yet, as overwhelming as that was, it pales in comparison to what it points towards in Jesus. In the new covenant through Jesus we are coming into the very presence of God Himself, the judge of all in His heavenly Jerusalem.
If transgressing God’s commands then was fearful, if the shaking of the earth then was fearful, how much more will be God’s judgment and shaking of the whole cosmos, heaven and earth when He judges all things. Our only hope is the mediating and saving work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. But that is all sufficient.
Because of Him, all who have trusted in Him will receive an unshakable kingdom. So when He shakes all things, melts it with a fervent heat, and recreates it, we will be preserved by His amazing grace. How that ought to fill us with gratitude, thankfulness, amazing reverence, and awe as we see ourselves spared the just judgment that we deserve and as we see our God in the greatness of the glory of His consuming fire dealing with sin and evil for all time.
If we understand but a glimpse of the greatness of our God in His revelation of Himself at Sinai, and of His coming judgment in a consuming fire of both heaven and earth we would not refuse Him when He speaks. We would not refuse Him when He calls us to holiness. We would not refuse Him when He calls us to serve Him. We would not refuse Him when He points out sin for us to flee from. We would not refuse Him when He calls us to sacrifice or suffering. We would be struck and would remain struck by the amazing grace, mercy, and love He has extended to us and wants us to share with others.
We do not have enough time to read through all those chapters this morning. But it boils down to this. The whole sacrificial system and the tabernacle points forward to Christ.
Jesus fulfills in full what the sacrificial system pictures. To be able to worship God and to be able to fellowship with Him our sins must be taken care of. We must be holy. Death—separation spiritually and physically—is the consequence and penalty for sin against the Holy God who is the creator and sustainer of life. We need someone to intercede for us, to take the place of our punishment. We need to be made righteous. The sacrificial system of the tabernacle pictured all this. But, as Hebrews points out, it could not cleanse the conscience. It could not put God’s law in our hearts. It could not bring an eternal redemption and inheritance. It could not take care of all our sins once for all.
The human priests of the tabernacle themselves died and needed to be replaced. The animals sacrificed in behalf of sin were insufficient and continual sacrifices had to be made. The priestly sacrificial system of the tabernacle in Exodus pointed out the sobering reality and consequences of our sin. It also pointed out our need to trust God’s provision to deal with them. In its temporary and repetitive nature it points to the need for a greater, ultimate, completely-beyond-our-ability provision.
It points to what Jesus fully accomplished once-for-all-eternally for all those who truly trust in Him as their Lord and Savior. He willingly died on the cross, a perfect unblemished sacrifice with no bones broken, taking our sin and punishment and giving us His very own righteousness and thereby reconciling us fully to the Father and guaranteeing our eternal salvation and inheritance with Him.
The book of Exodus, in its foreshadowing, gives us a quite a picture of the redemption of Jesus. We see the picture that Passover gave of Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf and the holiness that ought to produce. We see the Red Sea deliverance and the danger of idolatry, immorality, and grumbling against God’s provision. We see the provision of the manna and the provision of the sustaining water of life that are given to us for our daily Christian lives in Jesus Himself in His presence and provision in us and with us. We also see a glimpse of the greatness of God at Sinai and realize a bit better how amazing of a thing it will be to be in God’s full presence when He shakes not just the earth, but judges all things throughout heaven and earth. Being able to exist there at all is only through the redemptive mediating work of Jesus on our behalf. We also see how the sacrificial system and tabernacle foreshadowed many details of Christ’s once-for-all-completely-sufficient sacrifice to take care of our sins and guarantee our eternal inheritance with Him.
The work of Jesus is amazing. It is undeserved. It is a demonstration of love. God is not yet done with this world, and He is including us in His plan of sharing this amazing redemption with others before He judges all things as a consuming fire. May we be faithful to share this love, and live in a holy way before Him. Let us partake now of the elements which remind us of His blood which was shed, and His body which He offered willingly to pay the penalty for our sin.
We are going to have a moment of silent prayer where we can deal with any issues in our hearts, and where we can thank God for His amazing love. Then we will pray and partake of the elements together as we corporately remember and give God thanks.1
© 2020, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
1/24/2021
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Leviticus points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. We have looked at Genesis and Exodus in the past. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible point to and help us remember Christ and our salvation.
Leviticus is not generally one of the most read books of the Bible. So it will probably be especially helpful to begin with a brief overview of the book. That will help us have some idea of what the whole book is about as we consider its relationship to Jesus and our lives.
Leviticus is God’s law book. It regulates how the priests were to carry out worship and how people were to relate to God and each other. The last verse of the book sums it up.
Leviticus 27:34 These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.
These were laws which were given at a specific time and place. Because of that it is written in narrative style and there are some events and interactions in the midst of it. It is not just a listing of laws. Though there is a lot of that. In it we have the record of the consecration and commission of Aaron and his sons as priests and of the tabernacle for its sacrificial service (Lev. 8). Then there is the “strange fire” offering which two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, ended up giving which resulted in their death (Lev. 10). We also have the stoning of Shelomith’s son who got in a fight and blasphemed God (Lev. 24).
In the midst of these events at Mount Sinai, the first 7 chapters give careful directions on the different kinds of sacrifices and how they were to be done. Then there were laws on clean and unclean animals, leprosy, discharges, childbirth, incest and improper relationships. After that there are also instructions on the special feasts of Israel, with a whole chapter devoted to the Day of Atonement and the care required to enter the holy of holies (Lev. 16). There are instructions on what parts of the sacrifices were for the priests, and who could eat them. There were laws and instructions for the 7th year of rest and the jubilee year. There were laws of life governing people’s relationship to one another. The book concludes with a promise of blessing from God for obedience and judgment for disobedience. Then there are final laws on redemption from difficult vows or something consecrated to God.
All of these laws and events highlight the holiness of God. Seventeen times throughout the book it is emphasized that the sacrifices that were being made must be without blemish. If the blood of these animals was going to atone for sin it had to be a perfect sacrifice done in the right way. Since the penalty for sin is death this was the only way that God’s people would be acceptable before Him in their current situation. Their sin had to be dealt with. And yet, the sacrifices had to be done over and over again. Sin continued to be committed and one animal sacrifice was not enough. It was a never-ending process. The animal sacrifices would never end up fixing the problem.
While it can be considered a “law book” Leviticus also naturally extends what occurred in the book of Exodus.
With that overview of the book of Leviticus, the question that we have this morning is:
Leviticus expresses, declares, decrees God’s law on the sacrificial system by which Israel was to be holy, to relate to a holy God, and to relate to each other.
God is holy. This book starkly reminds us of that. The extent of the sacrificial system and the death required to deal with sin both hammer this home. But thanks be to God, the sacrificial system provided a way that His people could be accepted before Him and their sin atoned for. It sanctified for the purification of the flesh as Hebrews 9:13 tells us. The flesh of the animals covered the sin done in the flesh. Additionally, the blood could atone for their souls as Leviticus 17:11 said. Yet there were still inadequacies. What about their sinful heart, their conscience, their thoughts, and their desires? And what about high-handed sins, or those done which received the death penalty?
In Moses’ day, like today, people had to walk by faith trusting in God to atone for and deal with these things. Yet how God would do it was not the clearest—except that there had been prophecy of a coming One and a coming way that God would bring blessing on the whole world and deal with the fall and Satan (Gen. 3:15, 12:3, 49:10). In the meantime they had to walk by faith continuously carrying out the prescribed animal sacrifices. Their sin had to be continually transferred to the animals on their behalf. But it was not a perfect, complete solution.
From the book of Hebrews in the New Testament we know that the animal sacrifices could not make those who drew near perfect (Hebrews 10:1). It could not remove the consciousness of sins (Hebrews 10:2), nor perfect their consciences (Hebrews 9:9), nor take away sins (Hebrews 10:3, 11). These animal sacrifices and their insufficiencies all pointed towards the need for a greater savior. That is what Jesus provided to us on the cross, and what we remember here this morning.
Jesus, the promised Messiah, makes eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). He purifies the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). He gives the promised eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15). He completely redeems from transgressions (Hebrews 9:15). He put away/declares paid in full/forgives sin by His once for all sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26, 28, 10:17-18). He sanctifies us once and for all by His sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10, 12). Christ makes a way for full fellowship with God within the holy places (Hebrews 10:19-20). He cleans our hearts from an evil conscience and washes our bodies with pure water (Hebrews 10:22). He purifies inner and outer, now and forever.
The early priests’ work was never done—as you would see by reading completely through Leviticus. Christ, meanwhile, completed His work and has sat down at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 10:12). Leviticus provides the picture of the sacrificial system—God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and the need for a substitutionary atonement for our sins. Jesus is the final and complete fulfillment of all that for us and for all who will truly believe in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.
To be able to see these connections with Christ a bit more clearly we will now focus the rest of our message on briefly looking at the ways Leviticus is quoted and used in the New Testament. They have been grouped into five main quotes and then one last group of quotes.
1. First, in Luke 2:24 we see the sacrifice of Jesus’ parents after his birth being made in accordance with the law given in Leviticus 12:8. Jesus and His parents were careful to keep the law. The only way Jesus could take the judgment of God on our behalf and give us His righteousness was if He was perfectly righteous and perfectly kept God’s holy standard. He did in every respect.
2. Secondly, Leviticus 19:18 is the one place in the law (and the whole Old Testament for that matter) where we are told to “love your neighbor as yourself.” In the New Testament that command is repeated nine times. There it is proclaimed as the second part of the greatest commandment. Together with loving God with all your heart, soul and strength it makes up the foundation upon which all the rest of the law and the prophets depend (Matthew 22:40).
Leviticus gives laws which govern the relationship of people to one another, but the basis for it all is love. The same is true of laws which relate to God. True and complete obedience can only come by being expressed in love. When we honestly realize that the law includes both our heart motivation and our actions we realize how woefully we fall short of God’s righteous standard. Jesus fulfilled this supremely, showing us true love by His life and death for us. He did what none of us could do.
3. Thirdly, Romans 10:5 and Galatians 3:12 both quote Leviticus 18:5. In those places the righteousness of the law, which could only come from perfectly living in it, is contrasted with that righteousness which comes by faith in Jesus. Christ redeems us from the judgment and curse which comes upon all those who fail to live by the law—as God’s people were commanded to do in Leviticus 18:5. Because we cannot live perfectly in the law, we must live by faith in the righteousness of Jesus to do it for us, and to transform our hearts and lives.
4. Fourthly, in Leviticus the people were commanded four times to be holy because God was their Lord and holy Himself (Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7). This command is quoted and reiterated in the New Testament in 1 Peter 1:15-16. This holiness is only possible because we have been ransomed by the blood of the perfect lamb , Jesus Christ, through faith (1 Peter 1:19). God has purified our souls since we have been born again through the living and abiding Word of God. Thus we are to love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
According to that fuller passage in 1 Peter 1:13-25, the only way we can “be holy because God is holy” is because our faith and hope is in God who has purified our souls, caused us to be born again, ransomed us with the blood of Jesus, and allowed us to call on Him as Father. Therefore, because of all that and knowing His holiness, we ought to conduct ourselves in fear not conforming ourselves to our former ignorant disobedience but rather being sober-minded with our hope set fully on the grace of God which will be brought to us at the coming of Jesus Christ. Only by faith in God can we be holy as God commands us to be. Jesus is the only way of victory over sin. Jesus is the only way of holiness.
5. Fifthly, Hebrews 8:10 and 2 Corinthians 6:16 both quote Leviticus 26:12. There it says that if the people of Israel walked in obedience to His commands God would dwell with them and be their God. They would be His people. In the Hebrews quotation the context is the fulfillment of this promise occurring within the New Covenant that other Old Testament passages had prophesied God would make with Israel. Christ is the fulfillment of these blessings within this prophesied New Covenant. It was a covenant which they would keep because God’s law would be written on their hearts. In Christ God is bringing the blessing to all nations that He promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:3). In Christ God is fulfilling the blessings of living with and dwelling with His people which Leviticus talked about.
In the larger context of Hebrews the point of this is that the work of Christ, the person of Christ, the redemption of Christ, the New Covenant of Christ is infinitely superior to everything else that came before it. Thus we must not try to shrink back under persecution and trials to the insufficient law. Rather we must persevere in faith unto the full realization of all aspects of our salvation which God is bringing about. We may have extreme troubles in this life, but must hold on to what God is doing in Christ.
In the 2 Corinthians quotation the context is understanding and living out in holiness this relationship that we have with God in Jesus. Because God is dwelling among us, because we ourselves are now His temple with His Spirit living inside of us, because He is our God, and because we are His people we must separate ourselves from ungodliness. We are to walk in holiness in fellowship with our God and Father. Just as Christ has no harmony with Satan, so too we are to have no partnership with unbelievers or unrighteousness. As those who walk with God we must come before Him in holiness.
6. Sixthly and lastly, other passages in the New Testament quote specific laws which are given in Leviticus. We were reminded to not swear or promise falsely (Lev. 19:12/Matt. 5:33), that the penalty for cursing one’s father or mother was death (Lev. 20:9/Matt. 15:4/Mark 7:10), that the penalty for adultery was death (Lev. 20:10/John. 8:5), and that the law prescribed an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Lev. 24:20/Matt. 5:38). In all of these cases Jesus pointed out that the intent and principles of the commands went farther than the way the people were legalistically and falsely applying them. They included the heart and other actions that related to the sins dealt with.
All of these commands and their quotations in the New Testament remind us that God is holy. They also reveal to us the depth of our sinfulness. Even when we think we might be complying with what the commands are saying we are often still at fault by our failure within our hearts, or by the ways we have gotten around applying the principles behind the commands.
Beyond that, these quoted laws point out to us that the consequences for breaking God’s law are not small or minor. Sin has deadly consequences. It brings death. Finally, with the many repeated animal sacrifices of Leviticus which point towards Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross, there is the reminder that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). We cannot be accepted by a holy God in our sin. It must be atoned for with death.
The question we are left with then is, have our sins been atoned for? The law, God’s standard, is there. The law has been broken and continues to be broken. How then are you personally dealing with that? Without the shedding of blood there will be no forgiveness. The animal sacrifices of Leviticus were but a temporary solution that pointed towards the ultimate redemption which Christ would provide at His own expense on the cross with His own body as our sacrificial lamb. The ongoing sacrifices were a continual reminder of the people’s sinfulness, God’s holiness, and the judgment that sin required (death). If there was no atonement then God’s judgment would be personally experienced.
The same remains true today. Except, we do not have the continual reminder by animal sacrifices of the evil of our sin and the judgment it deserves. And, we have a final, complete redemption and salvation provided in Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all for those trusting in Him. So have your sins been atoned for by what He did? Have you trusted in Him to remove your sins and give you His righteousness?
If so, then He has made you His child and He is sanctifying you. He will finish that and perfect you (Hebrews 10:14, Philippians 1:6). He has set you apart as His own. He has determined to dwell with you and for you to be one of His people. Nonetheless, His standard of holiness has not changed. Rather, He expects us to separate ourselves from sin. He expects us not to have partnerships with unbelievers or fellowship with unrighteousness (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). He expects us to live by the truths of His Word in the power of His Spirit which He has given to us if we are truly His. He expects us to draw near to Him and hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (Hebrews 10:22-23).
So as we come to the communion table, the book of Leviticus points out to us the magnitude of our sin, the brilliance of God’s holiness, and the cost of our relationship to God. It cost more than innumerable animal sacrifices for us to be forgiven and made acceptable before God. It cost the very life of the incarnate son of God. It cost the perfect unblemished life of Jesus Christ, which He willingly offered on our behalf, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and make us holy. The communion table reminds us of all this. We have the unleavened bread which represents Jesus’ perfect unblemished life. We have the fruit of the vine which represents the blood of Jesus which He gave for us.
He did not do all this to leave us in our sin, or to allow us to go back and wallow in it. No, He did it to sanctify us, to completely perfect us in holiness. He did it to make us holy as He is holy. He did it to bring forgiveness and complete restoration to fellowship and relationship with Himself. He did it to dwell with us and for us to be His people. So then my brothers and sisters, let us confess any sin in our lives. Let us surrender to God’s sanctification process day by day in our lives. Let us walk in holiness.
None of this can we do on our own. He saved us by His death, burial, and resurrection. He gives us life. He provides the ability to have victory over sin. We must draw near to Him to receive it and walk in it. We must put on the armor of God to resist temptation and having done all to stand.
So where are you at with all this? Have you remembered this morning what God has done for you? Have you confessed any sin and committed to walking with Jesus today? Have you re-committed to being a living sacrifice who is not conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of your mind in the truth of God’s Word? Will you take up your cross daily and simply follow Jesus as His disciple, as a child of the “holy, holy, holy” Lord God almighty?
Hold your life and all you own and all your plans in an open hand before God. Simply ask Him to direct your life and seek to be faithful to Him day by day in obedience to the truth of His Word. It is both simple and complicated. It is complicated if you resist it, and simple if you are committed to Him and seeking out His will through His Word by His indwelling Spirit within you. You do not have to know His plans for you for the rest of your life. You simply have to be obedient and walk with and serve Him today. May that be where you are at, and what you are committed to today.
On the other hand, maybe you have not personally, truly and completely, trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Perhaps you have been relying on other methods to try to atone for your sin. Perhaps you have been relying on what someone else did, what your dad or mom or grandpa or grandma did, or certain good works that you have done such as being baptized or taking communion. Perhaps you are relying on a comparison with the holiness and righteousness of other people.
On the authority of God’s Word and His law be warned that none of that will work. God does not judge us by what other people do. God judges us by His law—which we have all broken. Because of that we are all under the judgment of God. Our sin deserves death. Blood is required. That is why all those animals died. That is why Jesus died. Your works and effort will never be enough. They cannot atone for your sin against a holy God. Only death can. With all urgency then, turn to the one and only way of redemption. Trust in the death of Jesus alone to atone for your sin and to make you righteous. The blood of bulls and goats was insufficient to eternally take care of and remove it all. They could only point forward to Christ’s perfect sacrifice and provide a covering. The conscience and soul need a better, more complete atonement. Will you trust in Jesus today?
Taking communion is a reminder of what Jesus did. Eating these reminders cannot save you. If you have never truly trusted in Jesus for your salvation from sin, my prayer is that in our talking about it today and in our taking communion that you will now see more clearly than you ever have before what Jesus has done for you personally through His death and that you will personally trust in Him.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16, KJV)
God’s love is more amazing and more undeserved than we can fully comprehend. But it is indeed real. The proof is in Jesus’ death on the cross for the world. Will you trust in Him and receive it? You can trust Him right where you are. There is no magical formula or prayer. God knows when we stop relying on our sin and rely on Him alone. Trust Him.
Before we take communion we will now have a moment of quiet while we think on these things. It is a time for each of us to pray quietly to God in our hearts to deal with any issues in our life and to thank Him for His amazing love in Jesus. Then we will pray and partake of the elements together as we corporately remember and give God thanks.1
© 2021, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
10/31/2021
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Numbers points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. We have looked at Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus in the past. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible point to and help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To begin with, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 36 chapters of the book of Numbers. That will help us better understand how it points to Christ and will help us have a better point of reference for some of the quotations and allusions that occur in the New Testament.
The book of Numbers recounts the 40 year wilderness wanderings of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. It also records the two censuses that occurred during that time (which is where the name “Numbers” comes from for the title of the book). One census occurs at the beginning of their time in the wilderness and starts out the book (ch. 1, and 3). Another happens at the end of their 40 years in the desert shortly before they finally enter the land (ch. 26).
After that first census the book begins with some of God’s instructions and preparations for them to enter the promised land. Among other things, this included the consecration of the tabernacle, instructions on how they were to set up and break camp with the tabernacle, as well as the order in which they were to camp and march. After all that the book then devolves into repetitious patterns of rebellion, judgment, and intercession.
Throughout Numbers there are numerous incidents of sinful rebellion against God. Then there is God’s judgment, which usually included death. This was followed by intercession from Moses, Aaron, or Phinehas the priest. This rebellion is what caused the delay in entering Canaan and made it such a lengthy sojourn. Unfortunately, it was a pattern which characterized that generation.
Here in the book of Numbers we see that a holy God will not tolerate sin. The just judgment for defiant rebellion against Him is death. The full carrying out of that judgment is only affected by the intercession or atonement that is made to Him on behalf of the people. That intercession, coupled with His promises and mercy, are all that kept Israel from being completely wiped out on many occasions.
Although they were not wiped out, God’s judgment for their unbelief meant that this whole generation of men died in the wilderness and could not enter the promised land themselves.
These events are interspersed in the book with the censuses, some additional laws and instructions, wars which occurred on the eastern side of the Jordan river, Balaam’s 3 blessings with his prophecies, and God’s initial and then second preparation for them to enter the land.
Throughout all of these events in the whole book only two men from the original generation leaving Egypt do not in some form or way rebel against God. They are Joshua and Caleb.
The five daughters of Zelophehad also emerge as an example of faith (Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah). They had no brothers, but wanted to be sure to have their family line continue within the promises of God’s inheritance in the land (which normally only went through the male heir). Twice they are mentioned (ch. 27 and 36), and they are seen as acting honorably in faith.
They believed God’s promises about the promised land or they would not have bothered to ask to be included in that future inheritance. They did not complain or rebel. Instead they believed in God’s promises. Because of that they acted by faith in the present to pursue being included in those promises for the future. Then when some extra marriage restrictions were placed on them to keep land from ever going out of their specific tribe they continued to walk by faith. They made sure to abide by the guidelines God gave to ensure they could still receive their part in His inheritance blessings.
With all of these accounts the book of Numbers shows us God’s holiness, the sinfulness of people, and the need for intercession and atonement. It also shows us the importance of faith in God’s promises and in His way of atonement and life. Doing things our own sinful way, shrinking back from obedience, and dishonoring God only bring dishonor and death—the consequences of sin.
“For the wages of sin is death...” can be abundantly seen in this book. But, the rest of this verse in Romans 6:23 can also be glimpsed “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How so?
Time and again God showed mercy when atonement or intercession was made. Even despite sin and His justice upon it God also remains merciful. He continues to be faithful to His promises. Without that none of us would have any hope. Just like the Israelites we too would deserve death and judgment. Like with the Israelites our sin is a rebellion and defiance of God. It deserves God’s wrath.
Yet, when the people turned to Moses and asked him to intercede for them he did, and God halted His judgment. There were still consequences for sin here in this life, but God has always honored those who turn to Him in faith. Unfortunately, this generation of Israelites did a very bad job of this. There were so many instances of unbelief and rebellion against God. Each time it brought swift consequences. That should be a warning to us. Thus we should take this book with these accounts as examples for our lives to learn from on all sides of this. God is holy. Sin will receive judgment. The only way our sin can be dealt with and judgment avoided is to live by faith in His atonement and promises.
For us, we are called to trust in Jesus’ work of atonement and redemption which He accomplished on the cross. We are pilgrims on this earth and God is preparing for us our eternal promised land. He is also preparing us for it, just like the Israelites. Because of that we need to continue to walk by faith and trust Him despite the hardships that we have to go through. We too will have things that we want to complain about, or that we want changed in our life experiences. But God is calling us to go through them and trust Him instead of complaining or rebelling. We will not always know the why’s, yet we need to trust Him that He is preparing us for the rest of the journey and He is preparing our destination in His heavenly kingdom.
To be able to see some of the more specific connections with Christ that are present in this book we will now focus the rest of our message on briefly looking at five ways Numbers is quoted and used in the New Testament that relate to Jesus. Then we will conclude by reading a rich passage that refers to a number of the incidents found in the book of Numbers and gives its own applications.
In Numbers 24:17 Balaam gives a brief prophecy of the Messiah’s distant future coming and reigning. He said:
Numbers 24:17 “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.
This uses the same kind of language that is used in a number of other Messianic prophecies.1 Here it is a reminder that despite all the unfaithfulness that was occurring even within God’s own people God would still bring about His previously promised redemption and reign over the world.
Things may look very dark at times in the world, and even among those who are supposed to be God’s people. Unfaithfulness may abound. But God will be faithful. He will fulfill every one of His promises. He is trustworthy. We can safely put our faith in Him.
As we remember Jesus’ work on the cross today we can look back into history and see the book of Numbers. We can see God’s promises to Israel and His fulfillment of them. He did bring them into the promised land. We can also see God’s far distant prophecies of Jesus and His coming. We can see how God fulfilled the first part of that. Now we can look at Jesus’ promises to prepare a place for us, to come back for us, and to reign over all things. We can be encouraged to know that He will fulfill those promises like He has fulfilled these previous ones.
Sandwiched in between accounts of Israel defeating wicked Canaanite kings on the eastern side of the Jordan river is an account of the Israelites complaining about their journey.
They had to detour around the land of Edom because the Edomites would not let them pass through their territory. The challenges led them to complain about it and the food and water situation. This is recorded in Numbers 21:4-9.
Numbers 21:4-9 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. 5 The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” 6 The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
The complaining came out of a heart of unbelief. They were not trusting God’s promises to them to bring them to the promised land. When they recognized their sin and cast themselves on the mercy of God He heard them and made a way of salvation. Everyone who was bit and was receiving the consequences of this sin could look on this bronze serpent on a pole and they would be saved. They trusted in God’s means of salvation and were forgiven and cured.
In the New Testament Jesus mentioned this incident in His discussion with Nicodemus about being born again. He compared Himself to the serpent that was lifted up and had to be looked upon to save them from the consequences of their sin and to give them back life.
John 3:14-18 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of what that episode in Numbers pictured. We have all sinned. We have disbelieved God’s Word. We have complained against God and His way. We have disobeyed His Word, and just as effectively rebelled against Him. Our just judgment is death as well. But when we see our sin, with its reality and consequences, we too should do what the Israelites did. We should go to God, acknowledge our sin and ask for Him to save us. We must turn from our way and look in faith on God’s way of salvation.
In order to save us Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He bore our penalty and sin upon Himself, and He died and was buried. Then He rose again and conquered sin and death. He offers life and forgiveness to all who will look to Him. He tells us to believe on Him. He promises that we will not perish. He promises that we will have eternal life. Will we entrust all our sin and disbelief to Him to pay in full for us? Will we surrender trying to be the God of our own life and trust Him to be our Lord and Savior? Have you?
Here with communion this is what we remember. We remember what Jesus did in order to bear our sin on Himself and bring us life. In remembering this we are filled with thankfulness, because we know that our situation in sin was just as hopeless as those who were bitten by these deadly poisonous snakes. There was nothing they could do to save themselves. They had to trust God and look to Him to rescue them. It is all an amazing, undeserved, free gift of God. That indeed, is love.
When Miriam and Aaron questioned Moses’ authority God Himself responded by defending him.
Numbers 12:6-8 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. 7 “Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”
Moses was the most exalted prophet that there had been. God spoke to him directly. God also declared that Moses was faithful in all of God’s household. In the book of Hebrews this declaration about Moses is quoted in the comparison that is made between Jesus and Moses. In Hebrews 3:1-6 it says this.
Hebrews 3:1-6 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
Moses was indeed faithful, and a great servant of God in His house. But Jesus is the son of God, the maker of the house. Jesus rules over it all. He is greater than even the greatest prophet. Moses could intercede for the people, but Jesus could both intercede and provide the atonement Himself for all our sin.
As we have seen, while Moses faithfully shepherded the Israelites out of Egypt, he was not perfect. He did fail to honor God in the incident with the water out of the rock at Meribah. Jesus was and is perfect. His atonement for our sins is once and for all. If we have trusted in Him for that it completely deals with all our sin. Jesus Himself is the builder of the household of God. He is the One who has called us to Himself. He is the One who has saved us and made us part of His house. He is completely faithful. Because of all that we can have confidence that He will complete what He has started in us down here.
Just like Moses was faithful and brought the Israelites to the Promised Land. Jesus will bring us to our eternal Promised land. We can trust that—no matter what we have to go through in the wilderness wandering of this life. We must remember that our hope is in Jesus and boast of Him until we go to be with Him forever. We do not have anything worthwhile to boast in of ourselves. But in Him we have everything worth boasting, praising, and proclaiming. May we trust Him who is faithful.
In Numbers 27:17 Moses was concerned for who would lead Israel after him. He did not want them to be “like sheep which have no shepherd.” Thus God had Moses appoint Joshua as the next leader.
In the gospels Jesus uses this expression in Matthew 9:36 and Mark 6:34 in reference to the people of Israel in His day. They did not have a real leader and needed one. They were distressed and dispirited. In Matthew 9 this expression is followed by Jesus’ declaration to the disciples that “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” And the exhortation is given for them to pray to the Lord to send out workers. In Mark 6 this expression is followed by Jesus beginning to teach them many things.
The book of Numbers really shows the need for people to have God as their shepherd. Even with a leader, the Israelites in Moses’ day complained, rebelled, and went in the wrong direction. The problem was that their faith was not in God. They needed Him to truly be their shepherd and leader. That was the same issue in Jesus’ day, and in our day. We need Jesus to be our Shepherd and leader. We need to trust God and His Word. We need to listen to what He will teach us through it and truly follow Him.
As we partake of communion it is worth remembering this real need which we have to be led. It is also important to remember that Jesus is our good shepherd (John 10). May we follow His lead in every area of life!
In Numbers 16:5 Moses is dealing with the rebellion of Korah and the other Levites. He warned them about what awaited them as they prepared to come before God the next day:
Numbers 16:5 and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself.
In his last letter before his death, Paul is giving Timothy last instructions on leading the church and dealing with false teachers. In 2 Timothy 2, after mentioning two false teachers in particular who were upsetting people’s faith, he references that passage in Numbers 16:5 and says this:
2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
The Lord will show who is His, just like He did with the rebellion of Korah. The Lord will reveal who is holy and who is not. The evil of those who are presuming on God will be seen. His judgment will not allow anyone who is perverting His Word to ultimately get away with that—whether in doctrine or life. Because of this Paul also gives this concluding exhortation that “everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
We can trust God to bring ultimate justice on those false teachers who pervert His Word and slander His true people. We should also use these verses to remind us to examine our lives and make sure that we are abstaining from wickedness and walking in holiness. God sees everything. When we stand before Him He will see through to every false teaching and sin! This is a comfort when other people are attacking the truth or living in an evil manner. It is a warning when we consider our lives.
The same is true when we come to communion. There is both comfort and warning. God is holy, and His redemption is an amazing comfort when we consider that He has paid for our sins in full and adopted us as His children. But it is also a warning if we have strayed from Him and allowed sin into our lives. God is indeed holy, holy, holy. He will not allow His children to wallow in their sin. He will deal with it. He has saved us and given us His Spirit and His Word to make us holy. So as we come to communion we must not presume on His grace, ignore His Word, or despise His righteousness. We need to confess any sin that might have come in between our fellowship with Him. Then we need to live with Him as our Lord and Master. To do otherwise is to trample His grace and invite His discipline upon our lives. May we be comforted and warned by the Lord’s revelation of who is His and who is holy.
Before we partake of communion, there is one other passage for us to look at. While we looked at this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 when we had communion from the book of Exodus (since the beginning of it mentions passing through the sea) the rest of the details of this passage even more closely connect here with the book of Numbers.
Because Paul himself takes the time to apply his connections with the book of Numbers we will try to keep interjections to a minimum and allow him to make his own points. It is worth pointing out beforehand that within this passage he mentions the cup of blessing and the bread which we break. He is talking about partaking of communion like we are doing. It is also worth mentioning that it is at the end of the very next chapter in 1 Corinthians that Paul goes through the details of the communion observance. Thus all of this is very relevant for us to think about as we remember Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. 6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? 19 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? 23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. 25 Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; 26 FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS. 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. 28 But if anyone says to you, “This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake; 29 I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks? 31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.
God has called us to trust Him for our salvation, and then to walk faithfully in obedience to Him. He has made us part of His body. He is making us holy. We must not allow sin into our lives to ruin and destroy that. God does not take that lightly—as we seen from our look at the book of Numbers. Instead, we are to do everything for the glory of God. We should live in a holy way that builds one another up and that is a testimony of God’s redemption so that others may be saved from their sin too.
Let’s remember now what Jesus has done to save us from our sins and to give us this new life. Let’s remember that He is the fulfillment of all the prophesies made about God’s redemption and will reign over all things. Let’s remember that He is the one who was lifted up on the cross to die and rise again to bring life to all those who turn to Him in true faith. Let’s remember that He is the faithful one who will take us to our eternal promised land. Let’s remember that He is the good shepherd that we all need. Let’s remember that He will take care of dealing with false teachers and immoral deceivers. Let’s remember that He is holy and calls us to be separate from sin. Let’s remember to trust Him through the hardships of life and not grumble.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, do so today! Think about what you have heard concerning your sin, concerning Jesus, and what we are remembering here now. Taking this bread and fruit of the vine cannot save you. It only pictures what Jesus did and helps us physically remember Him. But what we must all do to be saved from our sin is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must turn from our sin and place our trust in Him. My prayer is that you will do that today. Then you will have all these promises yourself, and you will be a fellow partaker of this eternal life in Jesus.
As we prepare to take communion now we will have a moment of quiet while we think on these things. It is a time for each of us to pray quietly to God in our heart to deal with any issues in our life and to personally thank Him for His amazing love in Jesus. Then we will pray and partake of the elements together as we corporately remember and give God thanks.2
© 2021, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 Cf. Gen 3:15, 49:10, Psalm 110, Psalm 45:6/Hebrews 1:8, Isaiah 9:2/Matthew 4:14-16, John 8:12, Rev. 22:16
2 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
9/25/2022
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Deuteronomy points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. We have looked at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers in the past. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To begin with, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 34 chapters of Deuteronomy. That will help us better understand how it points to Christ and will help us have a better point of reference for some of the quotations and allusions that occur in the New Testament.
The English name, Deuteronomy, comes from the Greek Septuagint title for this book. It means “second law” or “repeated law.” God originally gave the law to Israel at Mount Sinai near the beginning of the wilderness wanderings. This first giving of the law is expressed in Exodus 20-23 and then more extensively in the book of Leviticus.
After the giving of the law there, Israel rebelled against God and would not enter into the land of Canaan to take it. Instead they followed the fears of 10 of the 12 spies that had checked out the land. Because of that sin God did not let that generation enter the promised land. Now, nearly 40 years later, a new generation is preparing to enter the land. God made a new covenant with that generation with this “second” giving of the law.
The book of Deuteronomy can be split into 5 main sections. In the first four chapters Moses recounts some of Israel’s history with God through the wilderness wanderings. This includes the rejection of God by the people when they would not enter the promised land the first time, their travels with that generation’s death in the wilderness, and then the victorious wars against king Sihon of the Amorites and king Og of Bashan. Chapter four concludes this section with a strong command to remember, obey, and listen to God’s Word. They were to especially beware of idolatry, because God would not tolerate it.
Chapters 5-11 begin the giving of the law with the ten commandments. After that, though, this section is more like a preamble to the law with the heart and soul of it being communicated rather than a list of laws. There are repeated exhortations to love the Lord God with all their heart, to remember what God had done in their history, to not forget Him, to beware of idolatry, and to know that God would strongly judge disobedience and unfaithfulness.
Chapters 12-26 give the details of the law with all of the commandments. Idolatry is to be avoided and destroyed. God is to be worshipped and enjoyed with the sacrifices and feasts. Clean and unclean animals for eating and sacrificing are distinguished. Tithes and sabbatical year laws are specified. Laws for judges, kings, Levites, and prophets are given. Additionally, in chapter 18 there is a prophecy of a coming prophet like Moses who must be obeyed. Beyond that there are laws about the cities of refuge, about justice and witnesses, how warfare was to be conducted, and how many different civil matters were to be dealt with.
Chapters 27-30 then deal with the covenant that was being made between God and this new generation of Israel as they prepared to enter the promised land. Chapters 27 and 28 focus on the blessings that would come from obedience, and the curses of judgment that would come upon them for disobedience. Then in chapters 29 and 30 God makes the covenant with them amidst a recounting of their history, a preview of their future, and many solemn warnings. God would judge and exile them for their idolatry. In the end He would also restore them after they repented and He cleansed their hearts to love Him with all their heart and soul.
Chapters 31-34 make up the last section of this book as it wraps up “final things.” There is a final transition to Joshua as leader, a final song of remembrance which God commissioned to be a reminder to the people to not forget Him, a final blessing of the tribes by Moses, and a recounting of Moses’ final days as God shows Moses the promised land from Mount Nebo before he died and God buried him.
So that is the book of Deuteronomy in a whirlwind tour. There is a review of history, a giving of the heart of the law, a giving of the details of the law, a covenant that is made, and then the final acts of Moses.
Throughout the book of Deuteronomy the heavy, dominant themes are of loving God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind and body and thus obeying His law, of remembering what God has done in the past, of not forgetting Him and forsaking Him for idolatry, and of God’s strong judgment which will be upon them when they abandon Him. The certainty with which God speaks on a number of occasions of Israel’s coming idolatry, judgment, and exile is prophetic of what would happen. In addition to that there is also a theme that God will have compassion and mercy on them when they repent. He will restore them, bless them, circumcise their hearts, and atone for them and their land.1
All of this sets the stage for the coming of Christ to make that atonement and bring about the restoration and blessing that is talked about. The law itself could not do all this. In the very giving of the law, in the history recounted, and in the future prophesied we see that the law will be insufficient to preserve them faithfully serving God. A future atonement will be needed for them to reap God’s full blessing. A future prophet would be needed to bring about God’s full blessing. A circumcision of their hearts would be needed to bring about God’s full blessing. This is what Jesus and His sacrifice is bringing about.
To be able to see all this a bit more clearly we will now take a look at some of the specific prophecies and quotations from Deuteronomy that relate to Jesus.
Deuteronomy is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament. It is what Jesus quoted three times in dealing with Satan’s temptations in the wilderness. It gives us God’s standard of right and wrong as well as the heart of God behind the law. So it is no surprise that it is referenced so many times. Because of that we are not definitely not going to take a look at all of the quotations that are made.
Instead we will focus on three main areas where it points to Jesus’ work of redemption.2
The first prophetic aspect in Deuteronomy we are going to look at is Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19.
Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.
18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.
In Acts 3:22-23 Peter quotes this prophecy that God would raise up for them a prophet like Moses and that those who did not heed him would be destroyed. He directly applies this to Jesus in a message to the people in the temple after the healing of the lame beggar (Acts 3:19-26).
In Acts 7:37 Stephen also quotes this prophecy that God would raise up for them a prophet like Moses from their brethren. Stephen does this as part of his proof that the prophets had announced “the coming of the Righteous One whose betrayers and murderers” they had “now become” (Acts 7:52).
The book of Deuteronomy itself ends its last three verses with another reference to this coming prophet (Deuteronomy 34:10-12). A later editor notes that no prophet like Moses, who knew the Lord face to face and through whom God did such amazing miracles, had yet arisen. This was a prophecy still yet to be fulfilled and the very end of the book sets us up to be on the lookout for Him. Jesus is the one who fulfilled it, not any of the prophets of the Old Testament period. Jesus is the ultimate prophet who would reveal the Father to the people. He is the complete fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming prophet, priest, and king.
In the likeness of Moses—with miracles, face to face interactions with God, and revealing the Word and will of God to the people—Jesus was the ultimate prophet. As God come in the flesh no one could reveal the Father better.
Similarly, in the likeness of the timeless Melchizedekian priest, Jesus would be the ultimate priest who would make once-for-all atonement for the sins of the people. He did this on the cross through the sacrifice of His own life on our behalf. (cf. Genesis 14, Psalm 110, Hebrews 5-7)
Similarly, in the likeness of David His ancestor, Jesus will be the ultimate king who will bring justice. He will rule over Israel and the whole world with all authority forever. Every knee will bow to Him. (cf. Genesis 49:10, 2 Samuel 7:13, 16, Psalm 2:6-12, 45:6, 89:35-37, Isaiah 9:6-7, Daniel 7:13-14, Luke 1:32-33, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, John 12:14-16, 18:36, Philippians 2:10-11, Revelation 17:14.)
Jesus is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. Moses, Melchizedek, and David were foreshadowing examples of God coming in the flesh as the promised messiah in the person of Jesus. Deuteronomy foretells the aspect of His coming as the ultimate prophet who would mediate between God and man (Deuteronomy 18:16-17; 1 Timothy 2:5). It gave the expectation to look forward to. God would continue revealing Himself and working for their ultimate redemption and blessing. He would reveal the Father to us even more clearly than the law could. He would do signs and wonders even greater than Moses did. That is precisely what Jesus did. He validated His words with His miraculous works. He revealed the Father even more clearly to the world by His life and explanation of the heart of the law.
This is a major way that Deuteronomy points forward to Christ and His work of redemption.
Not only would there be a need for another prophet like Moses to bring in God’s full blessing, but there was also an internal need of people to enable them to walk in perfect obedience and receive God’s full blessing. Deuteronomy 30:6 tells us about this. After their future apostasy from God, their judgment, their exile, and then repentance this is what God says He would do:
Deuteronomy 30:6 “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Throughout the Covenant they were being told that they needed to remember God and what He had done in redeeming them from Egypt, and in protecting and preserving them through their wanderings. They were being told that they must not forget God when things were good in the promised land which He would bring them into. They were being told that they must not become ensnared in idolatry. Future generations were even being forewarned to repent and turn back to God after their failure and exile out of the land under God’s judgment! But here we see that ultimately they will need something more.
What’s interesting, is that when the covenant was made they were also being told just a few verses later on in this same chapter that these commands to obey, to love God, to remember and not forget, were not too difficult for them (30:11-14). God’s Word is described as being very near to them—in their mouth and heart—that they might observe it. They were being told to choose life and not death. So things were not hopeless. Rather, they needed to place their hope and faith in God.
Jesus was going to come, and they needed Him to circumcise their hearts and complete their atonement and redemption from sin. Yet the life of faith and trusting in God was open to them then and there. True, the law could not save them, but in loving God and trusting Him for His way of life they would have life. It would not be impossible. They could not perfectly carry it out, but they could trust in God for His plans of redemption and life.
We know that this was indeed the case, because we have record of many who chose the life of faith, obedience, and loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and body (i.e. Hebrews 11). They were not perfect, and they would still need this promise of a circumcised heart to perfectly love God and to have their sins finally and completely atoned for. Yet it was not a false offer. Rather it was one which needed to be received by faith. They needed to remember what God had done in the past and trust Him for the future that what He said was best and right.
The law itself could not save them. It showed them the righteous standard, but even here within the giving of the law we see prophecies of things missing that were still needed. The prophet like Moses would come and they would need to listen to Him. Their hearts would need to be circumcised and changed like Ezekiel 36:22-38 talks about. They needed the New Covenant which Jeremiah 31:31-40 talks about with God’s Law written in their hearts. Jesus is the one who changes hearts, who gives His Spirit, who will give new perfect resurrection bodies, and who will bring His people unto His kingdom where they will perfectly serve Him in the millennium and on into eternity.
Deuteronomy also talks of one other thing which they needed and which God would do for them. The law and its sacrifices were not sufficient to completely and finally atone for their sin. We can see this in Deuteronomy 32:43.
This verse is the last verse in the song which God had Moses write at the end of his life. It was to be a witness for and against the people of Israel for when they would apostatize from Him and go into exile.
It reminded them of who God was, what He had done for them, recounted the evils they would do in abandoning Him, explained why they would go into exile, the judgments God would place on them, but then also mentions His compassion upon them (verse 36) and ends with this final verse.
Deuteronomy 32:43 “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”
This is an astounding verse which has so much packed into it. It is rather astounding in what it says. First it tells the nations—the rest of the world—to rejoice with Israel. Then it talks about God’s vengeance on His adversaries. Then it talks about God atoning for His land and His people. At face value this could all be quite confusing. Yet in the midst of an exile in foreign lands, and in light of history it all comes together quite amazingly.
This whole song in Deuteronomy 32 proclaims God and His goodness, calls out Israel’s sin and idolatry for the destructive foolishness that it is, declares God’s judgment on sin, but then ends with His compassion and atonement. But not only does it have all this truth for Israel, it ends by also calling the nations to rejoice with Israel. This is a call to repentance for Israel in her exile and for the people of the nations in whom she is in exile with.
As Romans 11:11b-12 says, by Israel’s
“transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”
Thus in Deuteronomy 32:43 we see God’s future plan for both Israel and the nations. God had it all recorded in a song that they were to teach from generation to generation so that when they were in exile it could be used to call them to repentance and also call the nations to repentance. A purpose of our salvation as gentiles is to make Israel jealous and bring them back to God. That in turn becomes a blessing for the whole world as God completes His work of salvation and restoration for the whole world. Yet, in the midst of this, do not forget, God’s vengeance will be upon His adversaries. All those who persist in their idolatry and sin will be judged.
Paul directly makes this connection between Deuteronomy 32:43’s future hope of atonement and Christ in Romans 15:10. The beginning part of Deuteronomy 32:43 is quoted there. Here Paul also quotes a number of other passages to make his point, so we will read from verse 8-13 to take it all in.
Romans 15:8-13 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME.” 10 Again he says, “REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE.” 11 And again, “PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM.” 12 Again Isaiah says, “THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.” 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This promise for the future in the atonement that God will carry out is what brings hope to both Israel and the nations. This hope of atonement is fulfilled in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross where He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to fully and finally pay the debt and penalty for our sin. He atoned for our sin. He took our punishment upon Himself. He paid our debt in full. He brought forgiveness and life. He redeemed us from the curse of the law.
We also see some additional references in the New Testament to Deuteronomy which add to our picture of this atonement. From reading Deuteronomy by itself we might not have seen all of these allusions, but in looking back they stand out as God intentionally brings them to our attention.
In Deuteronomy 21:23 in reference to a law prohibiting hanged people from remaining there overnight it adds an explanation that “he who is hanged is accursed of God.” Then in Deuteronomy 27:26 at the end of the consequences section of the covenant that God made with Israel it said this:
Deuteronomy 27:26 ‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Galatians 3:10-14 pulls this together, along with some other quotations, to explain this salvation that Jesus provided in His atoning death, burial, and resurrection.
Galatians 3:10-14 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The law could not bring redemption and atonement. We are all accursed for our failure to keep God’s perfect law. Our only hope, whether for Israel or the nations, is to be justified by faith in God and for He Himself to bring that about. Back there in Deuteronomy 32:43 God explicitly said that He would do it. Jesus, as God, did it. He bore our curse, paid our penalty and through faith we receive the promise of the Spirit. He makes our hearts alive, begins our transformation, and is a promise and proof that God will complete it when we die and go to be with Him. He will do it.
Have you trusted in Jesus to cleanse you of all unrighteousness, to justify you in God’s sight, to give you His righteousness, to open your heart and mind to know God, and to one day circumcise your heart? Thousands of years ago it was prophesied within the very giving of the law that God would accomplish all this. It was prophesied that Israel would not stay faithful, that they would be exiled, that God Himself would atone for the land and for His people and that it would be reason for all the nations to rejoice with Israel. This has and is taking place in Christ. Is He your refuge and hope? He is the only true hope that Israel and all the other nations have. Without Him we will only continue on in our destructive sinful behavior which will receive His just punishment.
May we heed the words of this final song in Deuteronomy and turn to Him as our only hope and salvation. He alone is the only true God. He is righteous and pure. He alone can and has atoned for sin. Trust Him.
Then, may we continue on trusting Him day by day. May we heed the many warnings in the book of Deuteronomy to remember what He has done. Remember His salvation of us from our sin. Remember what He has brought us through in life. Remember His promise to be with us always until the end of the age. May we also heed the many warnings to not forget Him in His blessing like Israel did and begin worshipping and serving the things and gods of this world.
Deuteronomy 12:29-32 gives us a fitting reminder in our own day and age for us to consider in that regard.
Deuteronomy 12:29-32 “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ 31 “You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.
If we are not careful with our leisure time in our blessing from God our curiosity can lead us into checking out and following the world’s idols. Our lives as God’s redeemed people should not be imitations of the world. We should not be trying to see how close we can get to being like the world. We should not look to them as our examples to follow. We should not look to them or their TV shows for how to have a fulfilled and satisfying life. We should not look to them for our hope and purpose in life. We should not look to them as our political saviors as if we could build God’s kingdom on earth through their efforts and ideas. Jesus alone is our Savior and hope. He alone is our God and purpose for life.
May we not forget God in our affluence here in America. Instead may we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and body and trust Him as we walk in obedience to His Word and purpose for our lives.
As we prepare to take communion now we will have a moment of quiet while we think on these things. Do you know Jesus as your atoning Lord and Savior? Trust Him. Have you forgotten Him in the way you live life? Turn back to living wholeheartedly for Him. Let’s deal with those issues and then remember Him and give thanks to Him for His redemption of us from our sin. Let’s be encouraged to continue holding onto our hope of the completion of our salvation which He will bring about. Let’s be encouraged to fulfill our parts in calling Israel and the nations to this one and only hope of eternal life.
After a moment of quiet reflection in our own hearts we will pray. Then we will partake of the elements together as we corporately remember and give God thanks. 3
© 2022, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 Cf. Deuteronomy 4:29-31, He will listen and be compassionate; 13:17-18, He will have mercy and compassion; 30:1-10, He will restore, bless, and circumcise hearts, 32:36, 43, He will have compassion, render vengeance, and atone for His land and people.
2 This is admittedly a bit selective, as the feasts, the sacrifices, and other elements of the law also give helpful foreshadowing aspects of Christ’s work.
3 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
2/26/2023
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Joshua points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. We have looked at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in the past. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To begin with, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 24 chapters of Joshua. That will help us better understand how it points to Christ. It will also help us have a better point of reference for the quotations and allusions that occur in the New Testament.
The book of Joshua is fairly easily divided into four main sections. The first 5 chapters deal with Israel entering the land and preparing for the conquest. Chapters 6-13 are a record of the main battles of the conquest. Chapters 14-21 are a record of the division of the land for each tribes inheritance. Then Chapters 22-24 provide an epilogue and Joshua’s final charge to the people to continue to follow God.
Within the first section God commissions Joshua to lead the people and confirms him as leader through the miraculous crossing of the Jordan river on dry ground. In this section we also have the spies checking out Jericho and being rescued by Rahab. Israel is re-circumcised. The manna ceases coming as they begin to eat from the land itself, and Joshua meets the captain of the Lord’s army on holy ground.
Within the second section the notable events are the miraculous conquering of Jericho, the stumbles at Ai with Achan’s sin, the blessings and cursings of the law being shouted out from Mount Ebal and Gerizim, Israel being deceived by Gibeon, and Israel defending Gibeon at the famous battle where the sun and moon stood still.
The third section is a geography lesson of place names as the tribes all receive the delineation of their inheritances. Notable points include Caleb and Joshua each receiving special inheritances for their faithfulness to God. The five daughters of Zelophehad, who had no sons, also received special permission for an inheritance allotment. Cities of refuge for accidental manslaughter were appointed, and the Levites received 48 cities interspersed throughout the tribes instead of a regular allotment. Their true inheritance was the privilege of serving God.
The fourth section contains an interesting account of the return of the soldiers from Reuben, Gad, and the ½ tribe of Manasseh back to their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan. They stopped to make a large altar at the Jordan. This was misunderstood by the other tribes to be disobedience to God since they were only to sacrifice at the tabernacle. It was cleared up when it was found out that they had made it to be a memorial of witness between the tribes that they too were part of Israel and followed God.
The last two chapters then detail a strong warning from Joshua for the people to cling to the Lord, to love Him, to obey Him, and to not fall into idolatry. After a brief recapping of Israel’s history from Abraham, chapter 24 contains the famous admonition to “choose you this day whom ye will serve” as well as the unequivocal pronouncement that “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15, KJV).
The people vehemently proclaimed that they would serve the Lord. So Joshua and the people together re-covenanted to do so. The book closes with a record of Joshua’s death, Israel following God all the days of the elders, Joseph’s bones being buried in Israel as he had commanded before his death in Egypt, and then finally Eleazar the priests death.
There are a number of parallels between the life and work of Jesus and the life and work of Joshua. Some might call it a type or a foreshadowing. In several ways his life and the conquest of Canaan was a picture in small of what was needed and accomplished for us in totality in Christ.
The book of Joshua itself is not a very flashy book. It is not one that is referenced very often. In the New Testament there are only a handful of quotations and allusions. Nonetheless, it does indeed still point us towards Christ and His redemption.
We see this at the very beginning with the name of the book and its author: Joshua. Joshua was not actually his original name. He was renamed that by Moses from Hoshea. We find that out in Numbers 13:4-16 where the list of the 12 spies who were going to check out Canaan are listed. At first he is listed as Hoshea of Ephraim, but at the very end of the list it says that “Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.” In all the other places he is mentioned that is what he is called. Hoshea means “he saves,” whereas Joshua means “the LORD saves.”1 Joshua himself could not save or deliver the people. Only God could. Moses changed his name, apparently, to reflect that. Likewise, we cannot save ourselves from our sin. No matter how hard we try we cannot remove it. Only Jesus can. That is what He came and did on the cross. Interestingly, the name that Moses changed Hoshea to, “Joshua” as we call it, is actually the name “Jesus.” We do not call “Joshua” “Jesus” because of how the names came into English.
Yehoshua is how his name would be said in Hebrew. The Greek version of that is Iesous. We translate “Yehoshua” from Hebrew as “Joshua” in English. We translate “Iesous” from Greek as “Jesus” in English. But their Hebrew version is the exact same, “Yehoshua.” Yahweh saves. The reason it is different in English is only because we have historically translated one from Hebrew since that is the language of the Old Testament, and we have translated the other from Greek since that is the language of the New Testament.2
By the very name that Joshua was given, then, we have an immediate connection and foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and His role of savior. Historically the people of Israel would have thought of Joshua when they heard Jesus’ name.
Secondly, we see similarities in their role. Following God’s redemption of Israel from their slavery in Egypt through the plagues and Passover miracles Joshua was the instrument of God to bring the people into the promised land and lead them through the battles of conquest. God used him to bring Israel into their inheritance and have rest in the promised land as they experienced God’s blessings.
While both Joshua and Jesus were instruments of God to deliver and save the people, Jesus accomplished much more than just saving people physically and giving them earthly rest from slavery, war, and the trials of the wilderness wanderings. It is as the angel announced to Joseph about Mary:
Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Jesus saves people from their sins and the consequences of them. He will bring us into the eternal promised land with Him forever. Though it will include a future recreated heaven and earth, Jesus’ inheritance that He brings us is not just a temporary, physical one in this life. It is an eternal one with God as we are reconciled to Him because of what Jesus did in our place on the cross.
Third, we see similarities in them both being successors to Moses. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19 Moses had prophesied that God would raise up a prophet like him who would have God’s “words in his mouth,” and would speak to them all that He commanded them (Deuteronomy 18:18). They were to carefully obey him. Meanwhile, Joshua was commissioned by Moses at God’s order to be the next leader of Israel in Numbers 27:15-23. He is described as “a man in who is the Spirit” (Numbers 27:18).
No doubt it would have been wondered if Joshua was that prophesied prophet. He had gone up onto Mount Sinai as Moses’ servant when he received the Law. He had been Moses’ victorious general in the battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16). He had met the Lord, the captain of hosts, on holy ground where he was told to remove his sandals (Joshua 5:13-15). He had the people circumcised to walk in covenant with God. He had read the law to them at Mt. Ebal and Gerizim. He led them in conquering the land and divided their inheritance to them. He established the tabernacle in the land of Israel at Shechem for them to continue worshipping God there. Indeed, all of God’s good promises to Israel came to pass under his leadership as Joshua 21:45 declares.
Despite all that, Deuteronomy 34:10 notes in what appears to be a later editor’s inspired addition, this prophet like Moses had not yet arisen. None had known the Lord face to face like Moses had. As much as Joshua was quite the deliverer for Israel in bringing them into the promised land and a faithful successor to Moses the coming one would be even greater. Joshua had completed what Moses was originally supposed to do but which Moses’ sin prevented him from doing, but Joshua was not the coming prophet. He did not institute a new covenant relationship between God and the people like Moses did.
Jesus is the true successor to Moses who is fulfilling in an ultimate way what both Moses and Joshua did in a picture physically and what the law pointed to. As Jesus said in John 5:46—
John 5:46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
Jesus was the prophet like Moses that the people had to be sure to obey. In Acts 3:18-26 this specific prophecy of Moses is applied to Jesus. Stephen also applies it to Jesus in his catalog of Israel’s history which prophesied of the “coming Righteous One” (Acts 7:37, 52).
Through Joshua God saved and delivered Israel into their promised land inheritance. Through Jesus God saves us from our sins and His judgment and will deliver us into our eternal promised inheritance of the kingdom of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 15:50-57; Galatians 5:19-21, Hebrews 1:14; Revelation 21:7). He did what the law could not do. He truly reconciled us to God in the New Covenant. Now we are co-heirs with Christ of God Himself as Romans 8:17 says. As Ephesians 3:5-12 puts it, believing Jews and Gentiles are now heirs together of unfathomable riches in Christ as His body.
Since God was faithful to fulfill His promises of bringing Israel into their promised land inheritance He will be faithful to likewise complete our salvation and bring us into our eternal home with Himself. As we wait there are a number of parallels with our situation now as the church and Israel’s then.
Right now we are pilgrims in this wilderness wandering who are called to be faithful to God like Caleb and Joshua were. We are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation to the rest of the world and trust God through whatever that calling takes us. The foes may look daunting like the giants of Canaan. Nonetheless, the God who is with us is trustworthy. He will be with us, and He will bring about every single one of His promises. Will we be faithful? Or will we complain and distrust and pursue the gods of this world in our old manner of life that we have been rescued from? It is something to think about as we remember Jesus.
When we look at how the book of Joshua and references to Joshua are used in the New Testament it reinforces these comparisons and reminds us of some very important truths for our relationship with God. Altogether these references seem to fit nicely into three categories: faith, hope, and love.
Joshua is mentioned in Acts 7:44-45 in connection with faithfully bringing the tabernacle into the land of Israel. Right before that in verses 42-43 that faithfulness is contrasted with Israel’s unfaithfulness in worshipping false gods during the wilderness wandering.
Acts 7:42-45 “But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 43 ‘YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’ 44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. 45 “And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David.
Israel had been idolatrous during their wilderness wanderings. Despite that Joshua and the next generation were faithful to establish God’s worship with the tabernacle in the promised land. While not mentioned by name in Hebrews 11:30, Joshua’s conquest of the land by faith is also mentioned there.
Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
Joshua and the people trusted God’s word, obeyed His commandments, and saw God bring about His promises concerning Jericho. Just as Joshua and the people had faith, so too must we. God is bringing about His deliverance and salvation. He is redeeming people and will judge this world’s sin. We must walk by faith through the trials and spiritual battles obeying His Word.
As we look at how the book of Joshua is used in the New Testament we also see Joshua’s hope in the promises that were given to him. Joshua 1:5 is quoted in Hebrews 13:5. In commissioning Joshua to have courage to do what God was calling him to do God told him this:
Joshua 1:5 “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
This same promise to never fail or forsake is repeated to us in Hebrews 13:5. Look at the first five verses of this chapter to get an idea of the context for the quote.
Hebrews 13:1-5 Let love of the brethren continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. 4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”
The reason that we can have hope and endurance and remain faithful in the task that God has called us to do in the midst of the tribulations and trials of our idolatrous, immoral generation is because we have hope in the God who is with us. The reason we can persist in loving one another, in showing hospitality, in remembering the persecuted, in staying morally pure and exalting biblical marriage, in not being overtaken by the love of money but remaining content is because God is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. This is one of the greatest promises of God’s Word. It can give us hope, strength, and courage during any trial or temptation if we hold onto it. During the wilderness wanderings and conquest the people were tempted by idolatry, immorality (Ba’al Peor), greed (Achan), discontent (with God’s provision of manna), and so much more. Like Joshua and Caleb we need to walk in hope of God’s promises to us. We must keep our eyes on what He is going to do.
Hebrews 4:8-9 also reveals how this promise of rest in the promised land pointed to a greater hope which Jesus will fulfill.
Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Joshua’s rest in the promised land was a fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, but it was marred by sin and disobedience. It was physical, but it was not spiritual and eternal. It was not permanent. A greater fulfillment was needed. Jesus is fulfilling that. He made the way of salvation for us through His death, burial, and resurrection from the cross. He took the sin of all those who would believe in Him upon Himself and paid its consequences in full. He gives us His righteousness and is bringing us into His eternal rest when He comes back for us or calls us to Himself through death. That is the hope that we have in Jesus because of what He did in shedding His blood for us and conquering sin and death.
In light of that we should walk by faith in hope of His promises. While we do that we should live in love towards Him and others because of His great love towards us.
The one other quote found in the New Testament from the book of Joshua emphasizes this. It is from Joshua 22:5. With but slight variation Joshua 22:5 is a repeat of Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, and 30:6 to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. (cf. also Deuteronomy 11:1, 13, 22, 13:3, 19:9, 30:16, and Joshua 23:11) This verse is found in Joshua’s exhortations to the 2 ½ tribes as they were returning to their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan:
Joshua 22:5 “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
In the New Testament we see this command being highlighted by Jesus as the most important command upon which hang all the rest of them. It is the motivation and heart from which all true obedience comes. We see it repeated 4 times in the gospels in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 and 33, and Luke 10:27. Matthew puts it this way:
Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
When we realize what God has done for us in rescuing us from our sin and the destruction that it brings, and when we see what He is doing for us now as He brings us through this wilderness providing for all our needs as we go to Him, and when we see what He has promised to us in our eternal promised land it should cause us want to love Him with the love that He has loved us with. It should make us want to give Him thanks. It should make us zealous for good works and faithfulness. It should give us courage to be faithful despite the hardships we are facing.
When it comes down to it, each and every day we are faced with the same decision that faced Joshua and the Israelites at the end of the book of Joshua. We have the temptations of the world all around us and must make our stand to worship and serve the one true living God. We must decide that “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15, KJV). He is the only true God. He is the one who has ransomed our souls and redeemed us from our slavery to sin at the cost of His very own life. He is the One who has gone to prepare a place for us with Him eternally after rising from the dead. He is the One who is coming back for us. He is the One who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Will we take up our cross and follow Him? Will we be faithful disciples and work at the purpose that He has for us in making other disciples? Will we live for Him faithfully through whatever hardships that He calls us to go through? Will faith in Jesus, hope in His promises, and love to Him and others be the result in our lives because of what He did on the cross?
As we come to taking communion together and re-covenanting together to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, like Joshua did with Israel before his death, let’s pray and then remember God’s purposes for us in taking communion together. 3
© 2023, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 NET Bible note sn 9 in Numbers 13:16.
2 For a helpful article on this see: https://www.gotquestions.org/Yeshua-Jesus.html
3 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
9/24/2023
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Judges points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. In the past we have looked at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua doing this. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To begin with, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 21 chapters of Judges. That will help us better understand how it leads us to Christ. It will also help us have a better point of reference for the allusions and connections that occur within the New Testament.
The book of Judges can be divided fairly well into three different sections. The first two chapters lay out the background and problem for the rest of the book. Israel had conquered the land, but they had left pockets of idol worshipping Canaanites throughout it. They had made a covenant with some of the Canaanites and because of that God was going to leave them there to test them.
Chapters 3 through 16 record Israel’s cycles of idolatry and turning from God. In 7 different verses it says that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. (Judges 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, and 13:1) Because of their evil God would turn them over to the Canaanites or outside oppressors who would ravage them. When they called out to Him He would send judges to deliver them and they would have peace again. Then they would again turn to idolatry and the cycle would begin all over again. Even within the rescue from the judges in the upswing part of the cycle things were not all thoroughly godly and good.
Barak did not have the courage and faith to believe that God would use him to deliver Israel unless Deborah went with him. Gideon did refuse to be king after his victories, but he lived like one with his many wives. He also made a golden ephod that ended up leading him and Israel astray. After his death, one of Gideon’s sons, with help from the city of Shechem, killed 70 of his brothers. He then became a king for 3 years until God judged him and the city of Shechem.
Jephthah delivered Israel from the Ammonites but then with his rash vow lost his only daughter. Beyond that the jealous hotheaded Ephraimites started a civil war with him and 42,000 of them died.
Then we come to Samson. He was no paragon of virtue. He did not listen to his parents, tried to marry a Philistine, broke his Nazirite vow multiple times, and was immoral in an ongoing way. His greatest defeat of the Philistines even came when he committed suicide and brought the temple of Dagon down upon himself and his enemies.
All in all, while these judges did exhibit faith in God and He did use them to deliver His people, they also had many failings themselves. Things were not getting better in these cycles of idolatry.
The last section of the book, chapters 17-21 record a few illustrations of just how bad things were and why. At the beginning and end of this section, in Judges 17:6 and then the last verse of the book, it says that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Two other times in between, in Judges 18:1 and 19:1, it reminds us of those facts by mentioning that there was no king in Israel.
If we thought things were bad before, these stand-out incidents reveal just how depraved things had gotten.
Chapter 17 begins somewhat innocuously pointing out that everyone did what was right in their own eyes as it shares the story of a man named Micah. He steals silver from his mom, repents, and then makes an idol from the silver she gives back to him for the purpose. He also ends up paying a wandering Levite to permanently be his family priest with the idols and ephod he had made. Chapter 18 tells the rest of the story. A passing warrior group from the tribe of Dan ends up stealing the idols and the Levite to serve them. Thus that Levite and his descendents became idol worshipping tribal priests to the tribe of Dan until the Assyrian captivity hundreds of years later. At the end of the story the Levite’s name and genealogy are given and we find out that he is actually a grandson of Moses. It was so shameful that in some of the Hebrew manuscripts an extra letter is inserted into Moses’ name to make it “Manasseh.” But the rest of the genealogy gives it dead away. The idolatrous wickedness in Israel was so bad that even direct descendents of Moses himself were leading it!
Chapters 19-21 recount another set of horrifying events. A traveling Levite’s concubine is abused unto death by wicked Benjamite men in Gibeah who first attempted to immorally abuse him. To get justice for this atrocity and the wickedness that had gotten so bad in Gibeah he sends parts of her body to the different tribes. Rightly they all came together to deal with this, but unfortunately the tribe of Benjamin defended Gibeah instead of turning over the evil doers. After a deadly civil war on both sides all of Benjamin with her cities were wiped out except for 600 men. To keep Benjamin from going extinct, while not violating their vows to not let their daughters marry the Benjamites, 400 wives were found by destroying another Israelite city, Jabesh Gilead (since they had not come to fight Benjamin). The rest of the needed wives were kidnapped from those dancing at Shiloh during the annual feast time. What a ghastly mess!
It is on this note, after recounting all of the idolatry and perverted wickedness that was in Israel, that the book ends. Its final verse restates the situation and spirit that pervaded the splintered, floundering, idolatrous nation.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The book of Joshua recorded the Lord’s work in Israel with the victories that He gave them in bringing them into the promised land “flowing with milk and honey.” It ended with strong warnings from Joshua that they needed to fear and serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. The people covenanted to do so.
In a stark contrast to that, the book of Judges records the absolute failure of the people to fear and serve the Lord. It is one of the darkest and saddest books of the Bible. It records the evil, destructive, perverted realities of what naturally comes out of the human heart—even though externally they had God’s Law, God’s Word, God’s sacrificial system, God’s discipline, and God’s appointed leaders.
With all of that…
With the book of Judges’ portrayal of the dark realities of human nature at this time in Israel’s history there are actually no direct quotations of it in the New Testament. However, there are a couple allusions to people and events in it as well as an event that foreshadows the coming of Christ.
We find the first allusion to the book of Judges in Hebrews 4:8. Hebrews 3 and 4 talk about the rebelliousness of Israel in the wilderness wandering. Because of that sinful disobedience and unbelief God did not let that generation “enter His rest.” They were not allowed into Canaan.
However, from what Hebrews 4:6-10 says, even with the conquest of Canaan Joshua did not bring them all into this true rest of God.
Hebrews 4:6-10 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
In Psalm 95:7-11 David spoke those words and referenced this warning and rest. How did he know that Joshua had not given the people rest? How could he speak of it still as a pertinent issue? The book of Judges made all of that abundantly clear. Simply being in the land did not translate into being in God’s blessing and “rest.” Being in the land did not guarantee God’s favor. It did not fix the heart issue of unbelief that was the same problem in the wilderness wandering. Just being in the land had not made it a “land flowing with milk and honey” experience. Rather, as the book of Judges showed, despite being in the promised land the problem of indwelling sin, unbelief, and disobedience ran rampant. They did not have God’s rest. Israel’s experience was anything but what it should have been.
The author of Hebrews takes all of this and highlights that there was still a future rest. Where would that happen? This is a rest that can only be fulfilled in Jesus. There is a deeper problem that needs a deeper solution. The rest of this passage in Hebrews 4 takes this pictorial warning from Israel’s history and applies it to all of us in the present. We must not follow in Israel’s example of disbelief and disobedience in the wilderness wandering and in the book of Judges in Israel. If we turn from eternal rest in Jesus there will be no rest for us in God’s favor and blessing. Listen to what Hebrews 4:11-13 says.
Hebrews 4:11-13 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews reminds us not to deceive ourselves or to try to deceive God as we come to Him. It will not work. His Word will pierce through and reveal all of our sinful actions, attitudes, thoughts, and intentions. One of the foundational uses or purposes for the Law is to reveal sin. The law made clear where sin was, and the inability to redeem oneself. A sacrifice was needed to pay the penalty for one’s sins. Faith in God’s work of redemption was the only way of salvation. And yet, the law itself could not save. It too pointed towards to the ultimate sacrifice which was needed on our behalf. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of it all. We must each personally trust in Him to receive forgiveness, and God’s eternal rest. Hebrews 4 finishes off teaching about Jesus as our great high priest with our new relationship to Him by saying this:
Hebrews 4:14-16 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus provided the once-for-all sacrifice for our sins through His death, burial, and resurrection. He paid for our sin to be removed and gave us His righteousness. Thus, in Him we can come to the throne of God’s grace and be reconciled to the Father. We receive mercy, grace, and complete forgiveness eternally. But we also receive His help here and now. He understands our weakness, has been through the complete human experience without sin and can daily give us grace and help in our times of need.
We can have true rest in Jesus. Sin no longer is our master. How does this happen? Through faith in Christ. That is always how salvation from sin has occurred: trusting in God’s way of redemption. It is also always how victory over sin in one’s daily experience has happened. We must walk by faith, trusting God’s Word. As we do, we will walk in obedience to Him and see Him overcome our temptations and struggles.
And that is precisely what we see in the second allusion to the book of Judges in the New Testament. It occurs a few chapters later in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews 11:32. Here we have four of the judges from the book being mentioned. In the verses after that one we see them, among others, highlighted as examples of faith. After giving many specific examples of faith the author of Hebrews wraps things up saying this:
Hebrews 11:32-40 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. 39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
The judges in the book of Judges were far from perfect as we have seen. Yet, in their deliverance of Israel, at God’s direction and by His power, they did show faith. Those were the only bright spots in the whole book. From that we see that it was only when people walked by faith trusting in God that there was deliverance from oppressors and from the consequences and realities of sin. Their faith and the results pointed to salvation alone being in God.
The same is true for us in our lives. As we know from the coming of Jesus, He is God’s perfect deliverance from the consequences, power, and presence of sin. He is the only way of salvation. Without Him our lives will end up as bleak, hopeless, and destructive as those in Israel during the time of the judges. We will each follow our own hearts, doing what is right in our own eyes and then reap the consequences of our sin. Our particular sins will vary, like theirs did, but the eternal consequences will be the same. We will die outside of the rest and blessing of God. Like Israel who lived in the land with the possibility of God’s rich blessings without receiving it because of their sin and lack of faith, so too, if we do not place our faith in Jesus we will not receive God’s rest and salvation. Instead, we will receive God’s eternal judgment for our sin in the lake of fire.
One final way that we will highlight that Judges points forward to Jesus and His redemption is in Judges chapter 13. There we have the birth announcement of Samson by the angel of the Lord. By the time we get to the 13th chapter of Judges we realize that these endless cycles of wickedness, oppression, repentance, and temporary deliverance by a judge are going nowhere. Nothing is really changing and Israel is not even remotely experiencing God’s intended blessing. If anything things are getting worse! So when we have a whole chapter detailing the announcement of a special birth to a previously barren couple and are told that he will be a specially set aside Nazirite from birth, and when we hear that the name of this angel making the announcement is too wonderful to be pronounced and is in fact seen to be God by Manoah and his wife then one’s hopes begin to rise that perhaps now there will be something different. Perhaps finally there will come the true, complete deliverance of Israel. Perhaps he will be the prophet like Moses who would come as Deuteronomy 18 prophesied!
Sadly, those hopes are quickly dashed when the sad reality of Samson’s conflicted life and death are recorded. Samson completely failed to be the perfect deliverer for Israel. His life highlighted that no matter how good the human deliverer, and no matter what advantages he might have in being a Nazirite from birth, and in having God’s Spirit on him, and in having supernatural strength it still was not enough to overcome the indwelling problem of sin. Even a real life superman could not do it. All of this cries out that more is needed. God Himself is needed to help us and to overcome this indwelling sin problem. In God’s perfect correlation and orchestration Samson’s failure points forward to Jesus’ perfect fulfillment.
The angelic announcement of Samson’s birth and life foreshadows the angelic announcement given to Zacharias of John the Baptist’s birth and ultimately to Mary and Joseph of Jesus’ birth. (Judges 13:3, 5, 7 and Luke 1:13-17, 26-38/Matthew 1:20-25.) Samson’s life raised our eyes to our desperate need for a perfect deliverer whose death would not just destroy physical enemies and bring some physical freedom, but whose death would destroy the power and punishment of sin over our lives and bring us eternal, spiritual, and physical freedom. Samson’s death reminded us of the inability of mankind to bring a lasting and true deliverance. Jesus’ resurrection proves to us His power to save us completely, once-for-all, body and soul, and bring us eternally into God’s rest and fellowship.
Thus, probably the strongest way that the book of Judges points to Jesus is in its real world highlighting the need for our salvation. The whole book shows over and over again the wickedness of mankind’s heart and behaviors. It shows the inability of people to save themselves and live righteously. Even with all of the redemption and miracles that God had done in bringing Israel out of Egypt and with the conquest of Canaan the people were so quick to forget God and move into idolatry and evil behavior. Even with the giving of the law of the Lord at Mount Sinai and the institution of the priesthood with the tabernacle and whole sacrificial system each generation of Israel continuously rebelled and went their own way.
That is the stark reality of what people naturally do when they “follow their heart.” When they simply do what they feel like doing, sin is the result. They make up their own ways of worship. They make their own idols or fall into syncretism with other religions. Inevitably they move into immorality, strife, and murder.
Because of sinfulness in our hearts the libertarian utopia of live and let live simply does not work. Sin abounded. Anarchy internally and oppression externally resulted time and again. The form of government, though, is really not the heart of the issue: our sinful, depraved, hearts are. As we will continue to see under the future kingdoms of Israel, all other systems of government have the exact same problem and fatal flaw: the sin within all mankind. As Jeremiah 17:9 says,
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (KJV)
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. (NASB95)
Psalm 14:2-3 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. (NASB95)
The law does not fix the heart of man. Something more is needed. All of this points forward to the need for Jesus Christ to come and do what we cannot do on our own. Our sin needs to be paid in full and our hearts need to be changed from the inside out by the power of God Himself. External pressures and laws are not enough. Jesus is the only true Savior. Are you trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you been freed from your slavery to sin? Trust Him today. Nothing else will work. The book of Judges shows that and points to our need for God’s salvation. Everything else fails.
If we have been saved from this hopeless mess of sin, and given eternal rest in Jesus with the ability to go to God Almighty’s throne for grace and help in time of need then let us make full use of these blessings. Because of Jesus we can have victory over our sin day by day. Even in hard circumstances we can rest in Him and walk by faith. We can be confident in the future that He has for us. We can be strengthened for everything that faces us today.
Let us not put any confidence in our own flesh, in our own hearts, and in our own strength. Let us recognize the depravity and wickedness that we will find in those places. And, let us remember those who have had victory. Let us remember how they had victory: by walking by faith in God’s way of redemption and life. We must keep going to God’s Wisdom, trust it, and walk by it. We must listen to the exhortation of Hebrews 12:1-4.
Hebrews 12:1-4 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
We must remember Him. We must go to Him, remembering where He is at. He is at the right hand of the Father. Through Him we have access to all the grace and help that we need. Walk with Him day by day.
Let’s pray and partake of communion.1
© 2023, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
4/28/2024
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of Ruth points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. In the past we have looked at how all the books before this one in the Old Testament are doing this. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To do that, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 4 chapters of Ruth. That will help us better understand how it leads us to Christ. It will also help us have a better point of reference for the connections that occur to the New Testament.
First, though, we should note how prominent the theme of redemption is in the book. A version of the specialized word for a redeemer is used 116 times in the old Testament, and 22 of those times (almost a fifth!) are found in the last 3 chapters of Ruth. However, depending on the translation that you use, not all of the uses of this word are obvious. A number of times in the NASB they simply translate it as a “relative” despite it not being one of the more generic words for a relative or family member. The KJV does the same thing using the word “kinsman,” and the NET Bible uses “guardian.” The ESV, CSB, and LSB translations are the ones that have the simplest and clearest translation. They all consistently translates this word as “redeemer.” So when you read the book of Ruth, read it in one of those translations to more clearly see the redemption elements that are present. It really is a dominant theme for the whole book. That being said, let’s take a look now at our overview of the book.1
In the first chapter we meet a family who moved from Bethlehem to the neighboring foreign country of Moab during a famine. Elimelech, the husband, dies. Then the two sons marry Moabite women. After about ten years they also both die. Noami, Elimelech’s widow, decides to return to Bethlehem after hearing that the famine was over. At first her two daughters-in-law follow her, but she tells them to go back to their parents and ultimately their gods. They should remarry there since she will not have any more children to give to them to continue the family line. One of them, Orpah, leaves. But the other, Ruth, determines to stay with Naomi until death. She covenants to follow Naomi’s God and become part of her people until she herself dies. So they return to Bethlehem together and arrive at the beginning of the barley harvest. The chapter closes with a bitter Naomi. She blames God for her returning as a widow bereft of her children and with no grandchildren to continue the family.
In the second chapter we see Ruth’s character in determining to provide for them. She went to work gleaning to provide food. Gleaning was a provision in the law which allowed poor people to harvest the edges of fields and pick up what was overlooked from harvests. She ended up in the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s. He noticed her, protected her, provided for her, and had her continue to follow his reaping crew as she gleaned during the rest of the harvests. He had appreciated Ruth’s care for Naomi and wanted God to bless her and to provide a wing of protection for her.
In the third chapter we see Naomi’s sordid plot to get a husband for Ruth and long term security for them both. Naomi wanted to lure Boaz into being the kinsman redeemer and marrying Ruth. So she orchestrated a night time encounter with him after a day threshing barley. A kinsman redeemer was the closest male relative who had the responsibility to marry a childless widow and enable their family inheritance to continue in that family line through the first son that was born.2 Perhaps because Ruth was a foreigner, or perhaps because the nearest relative was not an honorable man and did not want to support them this was not happening. So Noami plotted to make it happen when she saw a possible opportunity.
Ruth did what Naomi said, but her character is seen in that she did not take things in a sensual direction. Instead, she asking Boaz to be her kinsman redeemer and provide a wing of protection for her like he had earlier asked God to do in his blessing of her (Ruth 2:12). Thus she made their encounter about a righteous request in light of God (cf. Ruth 2:12 with 3:9).
Boaz’s character is likewise seen in his self-control and honor as he did things the right way. He was not the closest relative to them. So he protected Ruth’s honor, gave her a gift of barley immediately, and promised to take care of the fuller issue the next day. He also committed to marrying her and redeeming the land for Naomi’s family line if that was his right and ability.
In the fourth chapter we see that the closer relative did not want to redeem the land if it included having to marry Ruth and raise up descendants for Naomi and Elimelech. So Boaz redeemed the land and married Ruth with the blessing of the city elders. God gave the previously barren Ruth a son, Obed, and redeemed their family line from extinction among Israel. God indeed blessed them. The book ends noting that Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. This is the same David who became the famous king of Israel. Thus in His perfect plan God preserved the family line of Judah yet again. David and His descendants would be enabled to rule over Israel. Given all that:
The book of Ruth is one of the rare books in the Old Testament that has no direct quotations in the New Testament. However, Ruth is mentioned once in the New Testament in the genealogy of Jesus. We see that in Matthew 1:5-6.
Matthew 1:5-6a Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king.
That genealogy of course is very similar to the genealogy at the end of Ruth 4, but the mentions of Rahab and Ruth are absent in the Ruth list. Likewise, David is not called “the king” there. So it is not a direct quote. However, it is a clear acknowledgment and verification of the Ruth narrative. Given that genealogies did not usually mention the mothers this inclusion of Rahab and Ruth in Matthew makes the effort to specifically include them rather important. Their conversions from being pagan foreigners to followers of God are not something to be ashamed of. Jesus wanted everyone to know of their inclusion in His family line and heritage. God had redeemed them and included them in His own story and purposes.
So the first way that the book of Ruth points forward to Christ’s work of redemption is that Ruth is in the family line of Jesus. Think about God’s gracious work in her life and the reality of her situation.
First, she was a barren woman who had not been able to have children in the ten years of marriage before her husband Mahlon died. Second, she was a widow, a daughter-in-law of a widow, and a sister-in-law to a widow. There were no immediate male family members left to protect them or provide for them. Third, she was a Moabite woman who had married into an Israelite family. While she was in Moab that would have put her apart from her own people. When a woman got married she left her family clan and joined her new husbands clan. Then, when she made the decision and covenant not to return to her father’s family, her father’s god, her father’s protection, and her father’s provision she was consigning herself to an unknown fate with an older widowed woman. They were going to what was for Ruth a foreign land. She would not have any of her old family around in emergencies. She would not have anyone else around to help her, protect her, or avenge her if she were wronged. She could only trust in God to provide and care for her. This is what her decision actually entailed. It was no light thing. She was going to care for Naomi to the best of her ability and would not abandon her. Likewise, she would not abandon her new God. She would leave everything else behind and trust in Him for her life and entire future.
Frankly, that is the reality for every single one of us who have truly trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Our situations are also helpless, hopeless, and powerless before God. We are foreigners estranged from God by our sin. We cannot fix the situations on our own. We cannot bring the dead back to life and bring true hope. We cannot undo our sin. We are beset on every side by the reality of the oppression of sin and the looming death that it brings. The only hope that truly exists for us is in God’s redemption. Thus we turn from our previous worship of false gods, whether that be the pursuit of money, pleasure, power, selfishness, knowledge, or anything else. We cling to Jesus alone. We trust Him as our Lord and Savior. We trust Him to do what is right and best for all of our future as we become pilgrims in a foreign land.
Another aspect of Ruth’s situation that has a parallel for many of us is that she was a foreigner who was included in God’s plan of redemption. She was not Jewish. She was not originally part of God’s chosen people that He had made His covenants with. Yet, God brought her near and adopted her into the covenant family of believers. Similarly, the good news of God’s redemption from sin in Jesus is for all peoples. As John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world….” Ephesians 2:11-22 beautifully describes this.
Ephesians 2:11-22 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
God chooses us and makes us a part of His family. We become fellow citizens with one another. Similarly to Ruth, God brings those who were far off near. God saves us from our sin. He redeems us when we come to Him by faith—as the earlier part of Ephesians 2 talks about.
In these ways then, Ruth herself pictures us in our helpless situations coming to God’s people and ultimately to God Himself for the help, rescue, protection, and deliverance that we need both for life and eternal redemption.
Have you seen yourself as you really are before God in your helpless situation? Have you seen your sin for what it has truly done to you and your relationship with God?
Sin leaves us dead spiritually before God. We have no relationship with Him other than being under His wrath until the time of our judgment. There is no way that we or anyone else or any other religion on this planet can fix that. No matter what we might attempt to do it will far woefully short. We cannot undo our sin nature. We cannot undo our sinful actions, words, and thoughts. We have no hope in ourselves or in any other religion. None of them can atone for our sin and make us righteous. Jesus is the only way that we can be righteously redeemed from this hopeless situation. Turn from your sin. Trust Him as your redeemer, Savior, and Lord. Be like Ruth, and not like Orpah. Do not have the way of truth, forgiveness, redemption, and life right in front of you and turn back from it. Forsake all else and trust in God for His way of redemption and life—regardless of what the circumstances might be that you face.
In addition to Ruth’s personal example of trusting in God and following Him, the biggest way that the book of Ruth points forward to Christ’s work of redemption is in the example of the kinsman redeemer that Boaz portrays.
It was not Boaz’s immediate responsibility to care for Ruth. It was not his responsibility to marry her and try to redeem her from the hopeless situation that she was in. It was the responsibility of the nearer relative who shamefully was not doing anything about it. Boaz could have pointed all that out and left it as it was. But he did not.
He could have blamed all of the problem on Elimelech’s choice to flee Israel during the time of famine rather than trusting in God during it. He could have said that it was all God’s judgment on Elimelech and his family for their disobedience, so he was not going to help. But he did not.
Boaz could have just taken advantage of the immediate physical situation and then turned his back on her as a foreigner who would not have anyone to fight for justice. But he did not.
Boaz did not just consider his own immediate best interests. He followed God’s plan and the spirit of the law for this kind of situation. He sacrificed of himself to do what was best for others. He took on the care and responsibility of Naomi and Ruth. He married a barren foreigner—perhaps seeming to also doom his own family line. He gave up some or all of his own inheritance prospects to raise up a child for another family line. He redeemed them financially and physically. He brought life to their ending family tree. He undeniably welcomed Ruth into the covenant family of God’s people.
Thus Ruth provides us a picture of a believer trusting in God for redemption. And Boaz provides us a picture of Jesus bringing redemption. Jesus perfectly followed the Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus sacrificed Himself to bring about our redemption. He paid the full price of our sin in His death on the cross. He died and was buried—seemingly dooming Himself. But then He rose, conquering sin and death.
Having paid the penalty for our sin in full, and having taking away our sin on the cross He gives us His righteousness. He redeems us from our former slavery to sin. He brings us back to life from our deadness in sin. He welcomes us into His very own family and gives us an eternal inheritance with Himself. He gave up experiencing the glories of heaven which He eternally deserves. He took the form of a servant, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross, to redeem us. Through death He brought victory and is now again exalted in heaven. One day all people will bow the knee to Him. Those He has redeemed will do it joyfully and with thanksgiving, and those who have refused Him will do it as they receive the judgment they deserve.
All in all, the book of Ruth is not a prophecy foretelling Jesus. Nothing directly proclaims details of the coming Messiah. It is not quoted in the New Testament. But in the picture of Ruth and Boaz we do see many similarities between ourselves and what Jesus does for us. Thus we could call it a type or foreshadowing of Jesus and His work of redemption. Looking back to the book of Ruth we see physically in Boaz in miniature what Christ accomplishes physically and spiritually in totality and perfection.
Many people today look to the book of Ruth as a beautiful, maybe even romantic, love story. In reality it is much more than that, and the romance part is not even necessarily there! Rather, this is a beautiful “chesed” story. In Hebrew “chesed” is a word which signifies loyal faithfulness or loyal covenant love. Here we see God’s faithful covenant love to His people both in their faithfulness and despite their unfaithfulness. We also see this loyal faithfulness exemplified in Ruth and Boaz.
Naomi is not a picture of faithfulness at any point in the book. She left Israel with her husband when things got hard. When she lost her husband and children she blamed God. She did ask God to bless them, but then she counseled her daughter-in-laws to go back to their old ways. She basically told them to trust in their old gods, their old families, and a new Moabite husband for their future. Later on she herself trusted in her own conniving—even if it put people in situations that were possibly very compromising.
Yet, through it all God was faithful. He stopped Naomi’s mouth of complaining and blame. He showed her His faithfulness and provision. The end of the book of Ruth gives us no final word from Naomi. But it does give us a final word from the townspeople who exalt God, basically rebuke her unbelief, and point out God’s redemptive mercy and care. Naomi was no longer childless with a dying family tree. In God’s grace she had a grandson who brought them back from the brink of extinction. She had a daughter-in-law who cared for her. She had a physical redeemer who provided for her. God was the one who brought all that to pass and was indeed faithful. From this may we learn to trust in God’s gracious goodness despite the challenges of our circumstances. He will remain faithful. Trust Him.
This “chesed” loyal faithful love is also seen in Ruth’s love for Naomi. She did not abandon Naomi despite her attempts to send Ruth back to her false gods. She did not abandon Naomi even with her complaining, despair, or depression. She did not abandon her even with her sordid machinations. She stuck by her. She worked hard to provide for them both. She took risks that could have jeopardized her safety by gleaning and jeopardized her reputation by going to Boaz at night. She was faithfully loyal. Given God’s faithfulness to us, and our trust in Him may we similarly be faithful to serve and help others.
This “chesed” loyal faithful love is also seen between Ruth and Boaz. Ruth did not run after other quicker options. She did not pursue richer, younger, or more handsome men to try to get them to provide for her or marry her. She responded to Boaz’s initial fatherly protection and blessing by following his wisdom. She stayed with his workers throughout the harvest. She did come to him at night in obedience to Naomi’s dubious commands. Yet with her words, in the spirit of godliness and faithfulness, she solicited his help as redeemer in accordance with the law and in accordance with his earlier blessing from God upon her.
Meanwhile Boaz showed his faithful, loyal love by not taking advantage of her. He physically blessed her with food, and did things honorably and in the right way. He promised to marry her and redeem their land if the nearer relative would not. Then he quickly followed through on those words. He took care of all the issues justly. He redeemed the land. He married Ruth, and he provided for both Ruth and Naomi. Thus Ruth and Boaz were individuals of integrity who showed faithful loyal love to God and each other. Then God blessed them with a son to carry on their family name and inheritance. God showed his covenant loyal love to both Boaz and Ruth as they walked in obedience to Him. May we walk in integrity like this before God and others and continue to trust Him to take care of us.
Through all of this God also showed His covenant loyal love to the nation of Israel and the world. God had promised that through Judah the scepter of rule in Israel would come. This happened through the birth and reign of David. Ultimately it will come through David’s descendent Jesus who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron and bring justice and righteousness as Psalm 2 refers to. As Jesus finishes His work of redeeming individuals from our sin broken world then His work of justice and judgment will occur. He will bring in and establish His eternal kingdom.
Down through history, one generation at a time, God has been demonstrating His faithful, covenant, loyal love. He has been redeeming people from different nations. He has been rescuing them from their sin and the hopeless realities that it brings. He is a faithful God. We see an example of this through the actions of Boaz which point to the even greater work of Jesus which He did on the cross on the behalf of all those who come to Him by faith.
God has been faithful in the past, and will be faithful in the future. He was faithful with Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz to bring about their redemption. He was faithful with Jesus to bring about our redemption from sin. He will be faithful to come back and finish His redemption of this world. And this is what we remember as we partake of communion together. He is our redeemer. He is the only redeemer. He is faithful. He is coming back. May we rejoice in Him, and trust Him. Let’s pray and partake of communion. 3
© 2024, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For an excellent study of Ruth see Bob Deffinbaugh’s study: https://bible.org/series/ruth-story-redemption-study-book-ruth
2 See Deuteronomy 25:5-10 for levirate laws, and Leviticus 25:23-28 for land redemption laws.
3 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.
9/29/2024
This morning we will be partaking of communion together. In 1 Corinthians 11:24 we are told to do it in remembrance of Jesus. As we prepare for communion then, we are going to consider a few aspects of how the book of 1 Samuel points us to Jesus and His work of redemption. In the past we have looked at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth doing this. So we are continuing on to see how different books of the Bible help us remember Christ and our salvation.
To begin with, it would be helpful to have an overview of what is going on in the 31 chapters of 1 Samuel. That will help us better understand how it leads us to Christ. It will also help us have a better point of reference for the allusions and connections that occur within the New Testament. If you have not read the book, or have not read it in a while hopefully this will inspire you to read it and get an even fuller picture of what was going on.
However, before we get to that overview it would be good to briefly understand where we are at in history with God’s dealing with Israel in this book. It would also be helpful to have a broad understanding of who is being focused on in the book in its different sections.
After Israel was set free from their slavery in Egypt by the miraculous plagues and Red Sea crossing they received God’s law at Mount Sinai. Then they wandered for forty years in the wilderness. This happened because of their disobedience to enter into the land of Canaan and take it by faith. After that generation passed away God led Israel into Canaan under Joshua. Many of the Canaanites were driven out and Israel settled into the land. During Joshua’s time they followed the Lord. But the coming generations got worse and worse as the people repeatedly strayed from the Lord and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This is recorded in the book of Judges. For 300 years Israel went in worsening cycles of idolatry. They went from being disciplined by God through the nations, crying out to the Lord, being rescued by judges sent by God, and then relapsing into sin. It is at the end of this 300 year period that the book of 1 Samuel occurs. Samuel is the final judge of Israel as it transitions to a monarchy.
Three individuals make up the main focus of the book: Samuel (the prophet of God and final judge), Saul (the self-focused first king over all Israel), and David (the man of faith who was anointed to be the second king).
The first 7 chapters primarily deal with the rise and life of Samuel. Chapter 8 deals with the people’s request for a king and then the next 7 chapters deal with Saul becoming king and reigning. Chapters 16-27 move to focusing on David. Then the last four chapters detail Saul’s final defeat by the Philistines alongside of David’s victory over the marauding Amalekites. With that backdrop, our overview should now make more sense with where we are at in Israel’s history.
The book of 1 Samuel begins with a barren woman named Hannah desperately praying to God for a son and promising to give him to the Lord. When God does give her a son, Samuel, she fulfills her word and brings him for service at the tabernacle under the high priest Eli. Sadly, Eli’s own sons were quite wicked. Because he did not stop their sin God warned Eli that judgment would come upon their family. As a boy Samuel also received a word directly from God about this judgment. It began to come true when the two sons of Eli end up dying in battle with the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant itself was also captured. Upon hearing the news the aged Eli fell back off his chair and died too.
Meanwhile, because of the Ark of the Covenant the Philistines received the chastisement of God in their cities. In fear they eventually sent the Ark back with a guilt offering. As he grew Samuel became known throughout Israel as a true prophet of God. Through him God miraculously brought victory over the Philistines. He then judged Israel for many years on a regular travelling circuit.
In chapter 8 a shift occurs. When Samuel was old the people asked for a king to replace him, since his sons judged corruptly. He strongly warned Israel what having a king would be like. In the end, God had Samuel anoint Saul as king. Saul’s first major test came with the Ammonite siege of Jabesh-Gilead. He rallied the people and defeated the Ammonites. Samuel then renewed the kingship of Saul before the people. He again warned the people. He reviewed his own blamelessness as judge and prophet, Israel’s past unfaithfulness, and rebuked them for pursuing a king in God’s place. In a sobering warning to fear the Lord and to truly serve Him with all their heart Samuel prayed and the Lord sent thunder and rain on their wheat harvest (which would have ruined it).
Though it started well, Saul’s kingship went downhill from there. When Samuel was delayed in coming to offer a sacrifice before a battle with the Philistines he took priestly responsibilities into his own hands and made the sacrifice. His judgment from God was the loss of a lasting kingship. God would give it to a man after His own heart. In future battles other people took the initiative that he should have and he made foolish decisions. Then when God sent him to wipe out the wicked Amalekites and all their animals he did not obey God completely. When Samuel arrived and discovered what happened the famous line was uttered that “to obey is better than sacrifice.” God’s rejection of Saul as king was reiterated.
In chapter 16 another shift occurs. Samuel secretly anointed David and we begin learning about this future king. He was a faithful and courageous shepherd who ended up skillfully playing the harp for king Saul to help calm him down during his troubled spirit episodes. Most famously, in chapter 17 David killed Goliath by faith, using his sling. Thus he enabled Israel to overcome the Philistines in battle. In chapter 18 we see him becoming a general for Saul, befriending Saul’s son Jonathan, and marrying one of Saul’s daughters. Unfortunately, with all David’s successes Saul became jealous and began targeting him. The following chapters unveil a whirlwind of trials, dangers, and adventures for David.
In chapter 19 Saul throws a spear at David and he escapes to Samuel. When they come to get him all the messengers and even Saul end up being overcome and prophesying.
In chapter 20 Saul throws a spear at Jonathan when he stands up for David. Jonathan secretly covenants with David and sends him away to safety.
In chapter 21 David flees to the priests at Nob, lies, and gets food and the sword of Goliath. Then he escapes to the Philistine city of Gath. After being recognized there he pretends insanity to get away.
In chapter 22 David goes to the cave of Adullam and collects a small riff-raff army while Saul has the priests of Nob and their families (descendants of Eli) slaughtered for helping David.
In chapter 23 David rescues the city of Keilah from the Philistines and the Lord protects him from Saul’s attempts to corner and kill him.
In chapter 24 Saul pursues David to En Gedi. When Saul goes to relieve himself in a cave David, hiding farther back in the cave, cuts off the corner of his robe instead of killing him. He shows his loyalty to God’s anointed.
In chapter 25, after Samuel’s death, David was spurned by a rich man named Nabal, whose shepherds David had helped. David was protected from foolishly taking vengeance into his own hands by Nabal’s wise wife Abigail. After God Himself judged Nabal and he died David married Abigail.
In chapter 26 Saul again tried to kill David, but he snuck to where Saul slept, took his water jug and spear, and then from a distance confronted Saul and declared his innocence in plotting against him.
In chapter 27 David ended up fleeing with his men to the Philistine Achish, king of Gath. Achish gave them a city, Ziklag, to live in. From there he secretly raided other Canaanite enemies of Israel.
Finally in the last four chapters we have Saul’s judgment and David’s protection. When the Philistines again gathered to fight King Saul resorts to a medium and witchcraft to find out God’s will. Israel was resoundingly defeated by the Philistines and Saul and his sons died. Meanwhile David’s hometown of Ziklag was burned to the ground by the Amalekites and their families were taken captive. Unlike Saul, whom God had deserted, God was with David. With God’s guidance they were able to track down the Amalekites, defeat them, take great spoils, and rescue all their families. After all that the first book of Samuel ends.
Now, it is worth noting that in Hebrew 1 and 2 Samuel are combined into one book. So the division here is a little bit artificial. 2 Samuel picks up right here with another account of Saul’s death and with David finding out about it. But because we have it divided in English into two books, and because so much happens in the two books we are limiting our focus to 1 Samuel.
As we come to communion, there are two main questions that we want to investigate as we consider this book. The first is:
The book of 1 Samuel sets the stage for the arrival of King David through whom the promised Messiah would come. Genesis 49:10 had foretold this:
Genesis 49:10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
The One whose right to rule it is, Shiloh, would come from a line of kings from Judah and eventually receive the obedience of all peoples. David is the fulfillment of the beginning of this line of Judean kings, and Jesus is the coming one who will be the fulfillment of the second part of this prophecy when He comes at His second coming. David’s coming and fulfilling the first part of this prophecy points forward to Jesus’ coming and fulfilling the rest. Jesus coming and bringing salvation from sins likewise points forward to His second coming when He will directly reign and rule over all of creation. People’s hearts have to be changed before they will all obey Him.
This book helps us see what was special about David. It also continues to help us see why the Messiah was needed. It does both of these things by its ongoing way of contrasting the focus of people’s hearts in the book.
The problem back in the book of Judges was that everyone did what was right in their own eyes instead of following God through His Word. In Judges it was partially blamed on there being no king in Israel to unite them and push them in the right direction. What we see here in the book of 1 Samuel, though, is that the real issue was the heart. Those whose heart wholeheartedly followed the Lord received His blessing, favor, and help. Those who did not brought suffering, ruin, enslavement, and destruction upon themselves and the nation.
At the very beginning of the book we see the issue of the heart with Hannah. Hannah’s heart was downcast in her barrenness, so she poured out her heart to the Lord when they went to the tabernacle for the yearly sacrifices. Then, after God answered her prayers and gave her a son she went to the Lord in her exultation and gave Him thanks from her heart (1 Samuel 1:8, 13, and 2:1). Notice, that in both her trials and joys she went to the Lord. She wholeheartedly followed the Lord, and He blessed her.
That, however was not the case with Eli and his wicked sons. In rejecting Eli and his family for their unfaithfulness God specifically declared that He would raise up a faithful priest who would do according to what was in His heart and soul (1 Samuel 2:35). The problem with Eli and his sons was that their hearts were not truly following the Lord. It brought a ruinous time upon Israel with the capture of the Ark of the Covenant.
Samuel, though, must have caught at the reality of what the people truly needed, because the heart was at the core of two of his addresses to all the people. Early on in his career as Israel’s prophet and judge, Samuel called the people to return to the Lord with their whole heart when the Philistines were attacking (1 Samuel 7:3). They did repent, and God delivered them miraculously. Much later on Samuel again called the people to serve the Lord with all their heart after they had wickedly sought out having an earthly king in God’s place (1 Samuel 12:20, 24).
Interestingly enough, in a continuation of this theme, right alongside the anointing of Saul as king God declared that He would change Saul’s heart, and then it records that He did (1 Samuel 10:6, 9). But as he lived his life, Saul went against God’s commands in the matter of making the priestly sacrifice himself and in not fully obeying God’s commands concerning the Amalekites. God’s followers are continually faced with the question each and every day on whether we will guard our hearts and keep following Him, or whether we will let our hearts stray away from complete obedience into sin.
In rejecting Saul God also specifically declared He would seek someone who was a man after His own heart and would obey what the Lord commanded (1 Samuel 13:14). Do you get the idea that this is important to God? David’s anointing as king was fully in line with this. In seeking out which son of Jesse Samuel was to anoint as the next king God rejected David’s handsome older brother and reminded Samuel that “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). That is what matters to God. That is why we are to have communion regularly. God wants our hearts, not just our routine actions in some areas of our lives. He wants us to live holy lives. He wants us to live for what matters. He wants us to have the lives that He designed for us in creating us.
Continuing on, we see another snapshot of this issue of the heart with a rich man named Nabal. In 1 Samuel 25 Nabal is the one who had despised David’s help to his shepherds. Initially he is described as having a merry heart during his drunken feast. But then when he sobered up the next day and his wife told him what had happened and how narrowly he had escaped David’s vengeance for his foolish, disrespectful behavior it says that “his heart died within him” and “became as a stone” (1 Samuel 25:36-37). Ultimately he died under God’s judgment. As Proverbs 14:12 (and Proverbs 16:25) says:
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
We can deceive ourselves about right and wrong and go our merry way, but when our hearts go after sin instead of wholeheartedly following God it leads to death. That is what our sin has earned. We are separated from God and after our physical death we will reap His eternal justice.
As the book of 1 Samuel comes to a close we see a final reference to the heart. When the Philistines gathered together against Saul that last time it says his heart trembled greatly (1 Samuel 28:5). Right after that, when the Lord did not respond to his inquiries by other methods, he turned to the witch of En-dor to find out what to do. God’s Spirit had long before departed from him because he had not followed God wholeheartedly. God had utterly deserted him, and all that reality finally and fully hit him when this great crisis occurred and God would not respond. What a sad way to die.
Meanwhile, with David we see a great contrast to all that. What we see with him is that God had picked him because of his heart in truly following and trusting God. While he did have failures here—like his lies to the priests, and his pursuit of vengeance against Nabal—he acknowledged his sins, repented, learned from them, and turned back to following God.
His reliance on God is repeatedly seen throughout the book. His trust was in God during the battle with Goliath—as was vividly seen in his strong words to the people and to Goliath himself. When he first fled from Saul, where did he go? He went to Samuel the prophet of God. When he fled again later on he went to the priests at Nob. When he was gently rebuked by Abigail for his making steps to bring vengeance upon Nabal he humbled himself and listened to God’s wisdom through her. When he had opportunities on two separate occasions to kill Saul while Saul was wickedly trying to kill him he would not do it. Why? His respect for Saul as God’s anointed king kept him from doing it. When his city was destroyed and their families captured He went to the Lord first and asked Him what He should do. He trusted and obeyed God.
One woman, Hannah, was a success. One rich businessman, Nabal, was a failure. One spiritual leader, Eli, was a failure. Another spiritual leader, Samuel, was a success. One king, Saul, was a failure. Another man anointed to be king, David, was a success. What was the difference between all of these? The difference was their hearts and their faithfulness in following God. Unless hearts are changed and stay following God people are going to go astray into sin and lead others astray.
See, the real issue with Israel was not whether they had a king or not. The issue was whether the people truly followed God from their hearts or not. What was truly needed was the redemption of hearts and inner change. People need to place their faith in God’s way of redemption and life. Once their trust is truly in Him, then it will change their lives. It will change their focus. It will change their pursuits. Having a physical king was not going to save Israel. Trusting in God and His promised messiah would.
The issue in our country is the same. While we all have preferences on the two main candidates in the upcoming election for who we think will better help our nation, and while we have strong convictions as Christians about voting against the slaughter of babies being enshrined into our state constitution the ultimate reality is that regardless of the outcome of the election what is needed is the change of the hearts of the people of our nation, state, and county. None of the candidates running for office will change the sin problem that we have in our hearts. Neither outcome on abortion in our state is going change the self-seeking, murderous, sinful realities in the hearts of people. People will find a way to do evil, and it will grow unless hearts change. What people truly need and what our nation needs is a true savior who transforms their hearts and mind.
Therefore, what we need to be doing is making disciples of Jesus. What we need is to be Christians who are guarding our hearts from evil and truly following Jesus whole-heartedly and unreservedly. What we need is to be Christians who are loving our enemies. What we need is to be Christians who are using our gifts and abilities to build up other believers in truly following Jesus.
1 Samuel thus shows us the vanity, emptiness, uselessness, and hopelessness that comes with half-heartedly following God. It shows us our need for the Messiah to truly deliver us. It shows us that only in truly surrendering to and following God is there going to be true success, peace, and the blessing of God.
Having seen this important theme in the book of 1 Samuel which pushes us to examine where our hearts are at in following Jesus the second main question before us as we come to communion is:
In the New Testament the first book of Samuel is quoted or referred to in five main ways.
First, in Matthew 12:3 (cf. also Mark 2:25-26 and Luke 6:3-4) Jesus was being questioned on why the disciples plucked grain from the field they were passing by on the Sabbath. Jesus answered by referring back to David eating the showbread in 1 Samuel 21:6 when he was fleeing from Saul’s attempts to kill him. The Sabbath was not made to hurt people, or to prevent good things. Rather, it was designed to help people. In times of need things like this were allowed to be done to alleviate suffering and protect lives. As Lord of the Sabbath Jesus confirmed that both of these actions were permissible.
The kind and gracious act of the high priest to provide food to David and his men illustrates God’s goodness and kindness. This consecrated bread was a life-giving sustenance to David in his dire need. In an infinitely greater way, Jesus, as the Bread of Life whom we remember today in communion, brings life to all those who trust in Him as Lord and Savior. There is hope for salvation from sin nowhere else than in Jesus Christ. David had nowhere else to turn than to God, and God provided what He needed. The same is true for us as we turn to God in faith. In Jesus God has provided what we need for salvation from sin. He will give His eternal life to those who come to Him by faith.
Have you seen the reality of your situation before God because of your sin and seen your need for rescue? Have you seen your inability to remove your own sin and be reconciled to God on your own? Turn to Jesus in your time of need. Trust His provision of salvation in Jesus Christ. This is what we remember and give thanks for with communion. It pictures this reality.
Secondly, in Mark 12:33 we have what may be a partial reference to 1 Samuel 15:22. When Jesus was asked by a scribe about what was the greatest command of the law Jesus had summarized that it was to love the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, as well as to love one’s neighbor as oneself. In replying back to this the scribe agreed and said that that was much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. This is very similar to Samuel’s declaration to king Saul that “to obey is better than sacrifice.”
God does not just want some sacrifices from us—to show up on Sundays and Wednesdays or to give of some of our hard-earned money—no, He wants us, every part of us. He wants our hearts. He wants us to follow Him, love Him, serve Him, and obey Him in every area of our lives. He wants us to be people who have hearts that are not held back in some area from Him. He wants us to actually love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He wants us to depend on what He did for us, not on something that we supposedly do for Him.
Communion should remind us of this. As we consider what He has done, is doing, and will do it should overflow our hearts with love for Him. By His death on the cross He rescued us from our sin and our eternal judgment in the lake of fire. He loves us so much that He took that punishment upon Himself and gave us His righteousness and His eternal love. He rescued us from our destructive, evil ways, and put us on His good, perfect redeemed way of life. Eternity with Him awaits us. Our hearts should overflow with thankfulness. We should delight to serve Him and follow Him knowing that every plan of His will be perfect and best for us even if we do not always understand it or see how. We should walk by faith and trust Him.
That is precisely what another one of the references to 1 Samuel points out. Thirdly, Hebrews 11:32 mentions David and Samuel as among those who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight. They are presented as ones whose faith we should imitate as we set our eyes on Jesus and run the race personally set before us in this life. They both had many hardships and trials in their life. David was on the run from Saul for years and was often in peril of his life. Even his boyhood job of being a shepherd was not safe! Yet he trusted God, followed Him, saw Him work in His life, and looked to God’s eternal home and redemption. So should we.
Fourthly, in Romans 11:1-2 Paul declares that God has not rejected His people Israel whom He foreknew. That statement is fairly similar to what Samuel told Israel in 1 Samuel 12:22 when they worried that their having pursued a king might cause God to reject them and slay them. He said:
1 Samuel 12:22 “For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.
Samuel’s point in making the people see their great wickedness by having the Lord send thunder and rain on their wheat harvest was not to destroy them along with their crops. It was to humble them, to bring them to repentance, to cause them to fear the Lord, and to cause them to serve the Lord with all their heart (1 Samuel 12:20). Interestingly enough, in 1 Samuel 12:14 he exhorts them to fear the Lord and serve Him, but then in 1 Samuel 12:20 he tells them not to fear. Scripture has many commands not to fear, alongside the commands to fear the Lord. When we live in light of who God truly is—repenting, loving, and obeying Him, there is no need to fear His judgment. There is no need to fear that He would forsake us or has forgotten us. As we understand and live in light of His perfect love it casts out fear. We know that because of His redemption that He accomplished on the cross He truly loves us and will do what is best for us, whether that is discipline, rescue, trials that build holiness, or anything else.
Finally, we see the book of 1 Samuel most extensively referred to and quoted in Acts 13. There Paul recounts Israel’s history as he shares the gospel in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. He mentions the exodus, the wilderness wandering, the conquest of Canaan, the judges, Samuel and Saul, and finally God’s raising up of David, a man after His own heart. From him Paul then directly moves to declaring Jesus the Savior as a descendent of David and the fulfillment of the messianic promises which were given. This is what it says in Acts 13:22-24—
Acts 13:22-24 “After He had removed him [Saul], He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’ 23 “From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24 after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. [Bracketed text added]
Samuel, Saul, and David were all part of God’s plan in pointing to and leading to Jesus. Samuel repeatedly pointed to the need for people’s hearts—everything that makes up our actions with our emotions, desires, understanding, and decisions—being surrendered to God. Saul shows us what happens when we try to mix following God with really following our own desires. Outward change or appearance is not what is needed. An inward change of the heart and a true trust in God is essential. David shows us the nitty-gritty of what it means to be a man who follows God with their whole heart. He was not perfect, but he repented and followed God. He had hardships, but He trusted God with his life and death. When God told him to do something he did it.
On the basis of all this, what will we do with Jesus? Will we repent of our sin and follow Jesus as Paul urged? Will we guard our hearts and truly follow Jesus day by day as Samuel exhorted? Will we humble ourselves, confess our sin and turn back to Jesus when we fail as David illustrated? Will we obey Jesus no matter what He calls us to do? Will we trust Him and follow Him through the hard times and the good times? Will we remind ourselves of what He has saved us from, what He has in store for us in the future, and what His wisdom calls us to do day by day? May we indeed be wholehearted followers of God. God designed communion to help us do these things. So let’s partake of it together and continue remembering Him day by day.1
© 2024, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
1 For us as believers in Jesus Christ Communion is a time to remember together what Jesus has done for us in His life, death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins and to save us from the judgment that we deserve from them.
Drinking this cup and eating this bread does not in any way remove any of our sin. It does not in any way save us from God’s judgment for our sin. Only faith in what Jesus did, that this reminds us of, can do that. So we do this in remembrance of what He did, as He commanded us to do.
If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this will do you no good. You need to think about what Jesus did, and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin to God. Trust God to forgive you, redeem you, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness because of what Jesus did in your place.
As believers, this remembrance should challenge us to look at our lives and see if we are walking before Him with a pure conscience and whole-heartedly. If not, we need to confess that to Him, and surrender from walking in our own way and walk in a holy way—controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh.
This remembrance should also fill us with encouragement and joy that He would love us so much, redeem us from our sin, give us new life, and enable us to walk in a way that honors Him through His presence with us. May we continually remember Him: remembering what He has done in our lives, and what He will do.